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THE 
TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION 

OF 1775 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF 

ROBERT O. BASCOM 

BY 

GRENVILLE M. INGALSBEE 




ROBERT O. BASCOM 

Born Nov. 18, 1855. Died May 19, 1909. 



ROBERT O. BASCOM. 



By Grenville M. Ingalsbe. 



I. Biographical Sketch. 

Robert 0. Bascom, student, lawyer, historian and archeologist, 
died at his home in Fort Edward, on the 19th day of May, 1909, 
aged fifty-three years. He was born in Orwell, Vermont, and 
traced his paternal ancestry through successive generations of 
sturdy New England stock to Thomas Bascom, a native of England, 
who emigrated to America in 1634, and settled in "Windsor, Con- 
necticut. His great, great grandfather, Ezekial Bascom, was a 
participant in the Colonial Wars, and his great grandfather, Elias 
Bascom, was a soldier of the Revolution. 

After attending the High Schools of Brandon and Shoreham, 
Vermont, and laying broadly the foundations of an education, Mr. 
Bascom entered the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute, and gradu- 
ated from that institution in 1876. He continued, for a time, at 
the Institute, winning an enviable reputation as a teacher. He 
became attracted, however, by the profession of law, and decided 
to devote his energies to its service. 

He commenced and pursued his legal studies, with his char- 
acteristic enthusiasm, and was admitted to the Bar in 1883. Short- 
ly afterwards he opened an office in Fort Edward, and entered 
upon the successful practice of his profession. From that time 
until his death, though doing much valuable work in other fields, 
he was first a lawyer, well grounded in the principles of the 
law, and apt in their interpretation and application. 

In 1905, a vacancy occurred in the Office of District Attor- 
ney of Washington County, and Mr. Bascom was appointed to that 
position. His official work was so satisfactory that in the fall of 
that year he was elected for a term of three years. At its expira- 
tion he was re-elected and had just entered upon his second elec- 



tive term when he was stricken with the malady which caused his 
death. 

Mr. Bascom was a charter member and the President of the 
Adirondack Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, a mem- 
ber of the Fort Edward Lodge, F. and A. M. ; the Fort Edward 
Club; the National Geographic Society; the Ticoncleroga His- 
torical Society; the Vermont Historical Society; the New York 
State Historical Association ; the New York Genealogical and Bio- 
graphical Society and the New York State Bar Association. In 
this latter Association he performed much efficient work as a mem- 
ber of the Committee on Grievances, and of its sub-committee hav- 
ing in charge the inquiry against Mr. Justice Hooker, in 1904. 

He had been a Trustee of the New York State Historical As- 
sociation since its organization, and for seven years its Secretary. 
In 1901 he prepared a valuable monograph for the Annual Meet- 
ing of the Association, which it afterward printed. He attended 
to the publication of six volumes of the Proceedings of the Asso- 
ciation, a labor of no small magnitude to a man busily engrossed 
in the active duties of an exacting profession. He assumed the 
task, however, cheerfully, and performed it faithfully, as the 
volumes issued under his direction, testify. In his work he was 
accurate, thorough and painstaking. The State Historical Asso- 
ciation is greatly indebted to him for his unselfish and untiring 
labors in its behalf, and his death is a serious loss. 

After he made choice of his profession, Mr. Bascom was first 
of all a lawyer, but he remained always a student, an investigator 
along many lines, social, bibliographical, philosophical, political, 
antiquarian and historical. In no field was he more at home than 
that of historical research, and to it he devoted much time and 
thought. Indeed, the quest for historical lore seemed to be one of 
his recreations. 

He had published much, and he had gathered much more. 
He was constantly in search of historical material. He had reach- 
ed the meridian of life, his professional standing was established, 
he was enjoying the rewards of accomplished attainment and he 
was looking forward to the calm years of the sunset slope, — the 

anga 
•sitgr 

2 1933 



stress and strain of life relaxed, when he could devote himself 
more and more to congenial tasks, outside the work and weariness 
of his profession. Could he have done this, the sum of human 
knowledge would have been much increased, and the world corres- 
pondingly benefitted. But it was not to be. 

When such a life is closed we should pause and give credit. 
Its memory should not be allowed to vanish from the minds of 
men. When a man is found, in these days of greed and commer- 
cialism, firm rooted, and eager to give of his best in thought and 
deed, for the benefit of his fellowmen, his work and worth should 
be duly recognized and accredited. 

II. Bibliography. 
"Fort Edward Book" 1903. 
"Capt. Norton's Orderly Book" 1902. 
"Historic Mount Independence" 1908. 
"Life of Jane McCrea," 1890. 

"The Men Who Entered Fort Ticonderoga With Ethan Al- 
len" (various editions), 1890-1909. 

"Legend of Duncan Campbell," 1902. 

"Legend of Duncan Campbell," revised and amplified, 1909. 

"Duncan Campbell," 1903. 

' ' Ethan Allen and The Green Mountain Boys, ' ' 1901. 

"Jane McCrea," 1895. 

III. Historical Lectures and Addresses. 
' ' Our Lady of Guadalope. ' ' 
"Christopher Columbus." 
"Charles Stewart, King of England." 
' ' Mexico. ' ' 
"Havana," 

' ' The Green Mountain Boys. ' ' 
"William McKinley." 

"Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots." 
"Vermont." 
"The Tartar Invasion." 
"President Garfield." 
"The Land of Chaldeans." 



THE 

TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION 
OF 1775 



LIST OF MEN WITH ETHAN ALLEN 

By the late Robert O. Bascom. 



ANECDOTES AND DATA ABOUT ALLEN 

By the late Robert O. Bascom. 
With Emendatory Notes by James Austin Holden. 



ADDITIONS TO BASCOM'S ALLEN'S MEN, 

Anecdotes and Data regarding Ethan Allen and Ticonderoga Expedition 
By James Austin Holden. 



SOME HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE 
About the Ticonderoga Expedition — and Who Took Fort George 

By James Austin Holden. 



THE MEN WITH ETHAN ALLEN AT THE CAP- 
TURE OF TICONDEROGA. 



May 10th, 1775. 



By the Late Robert 0. Bascom, Secretary of the Association. 
With Additions and Emendatory Notes* by James A. Holden. 



Fort Edward, N. Y., Aug. 25, 1906. 

It is now some years since the effort was first made to collect 
the names of the Green Mountain Boys, with their associates from 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, who were present at the capture 
of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen on May 10th, 1775.' With 
each successive publication the list has slowly grown until as will 
be seen it now includes, as I believe, 53 of the original 83 that ac- 
tually entered the fort with Allen. It is possible that the remain- 
ing 30 names are to be found among the men who accompanied 
the expedition from Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

During the time that has elapsed since this effort to restore 
the roster was commenced, many names have come to my notice 
of men who were engaged in some capacity in the expedition. 
Some of them went to Skenesborough ; some went to Albany ; some 
remained on the Vermont side at Hand's Cove and went the next 
day to Crown Point. These names I have preserved and as has 
often been the ease the information in relation to them has been 
accompanied with some few items of personal history, and some- 
times there has been a little crumb of new historic information, all 
of which I have endeavored to treasure up. 

It is said that after Colonel Herrick's party had gone to 
Skenesborough, 140 men remained at Castleton. In the list which 
I send you with this, are the names of 96 men that I believe took 
part in some capacity in the expedition against Ticonderoga and 



'All additional or edited matter in brackets. [ 



THE TICONDEKOGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 6 

Crown Point and Skenesborough. There are yet a good many 
names to be added before the list shall be complete, but it is not 
altogether improbable or impossible but that many additions may 
yet be made to the roll. 

ROBERT 0. BASCOM, 
Secretary of the New York Historical Association, 



THE LIST. 



(In the following list those marked thus (*) are believed to 
belong to the 83 immortals who entered the fort with Allen — 53 
names. Those marked thus (x) have a military record in the Ver- 
mont Revolutionary rolls, 50 in number.) 

x* Col. Ethan Allen stands at the head of this list. He 
was in command of the expedition, marched into the fort at the 
head of the center file of men and demanded and received the sur- 
render of the fort in the name of the "Great Jehovah and the Con- 
tinental Congress" as he said, but it wall be observed that some 
attribute the use of different language to him on that occasion. 
His life and public services are so well known that it seems unnec- 
essary here to give further details thereof. 

x Ira Allen, brother of Ethan, was paid by Connecticut for 
services in connection with this expedition, but so far it does not 
appear what those services were. (See Conn. Men in the Revo- 
lution.) Hiland Hall's Vermont, pp. 454-455. J. A. H.] 

x Heman Allen, brother of Ethan, was with the party at 
Bennington. (Chittenden, page 33.) [Hiland Hall's Vermont 
page 454. J. A. H.] 

x Levi Allen, brother of Ethan, was one of the Connecticut 
party and was with the expedition at Norfolk and also at Ben- 
nington. (Connecticut Historical Collections, Vol. I, page 167. 
Chittenden, page 33). 

x* Ebenezer Andrews [of Mount Holly,] is said to have been 
present at the capture. (Proceedings Vermont Historical Society, 
1903-4, page 98.) 



4 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

* John Alexander of Brattleborough is said to have been 
present at the capture. (Id. page 98.) 

x* Ebenezer Allen of Poultney, Vt., said to have been a rela- 
tive of Ethan and to have been with him at Ticonderoga, was one 
of the first settlers of Poultney, born in Northampton, Mass., Oc- 
tober 17, 1743 ; married, 1762, Miss Richards. Moved to Benning- 
ton 1768. Lieutenant in "Warner's regiment, 1775, afterwards re- 
sided at Tinmouth. Delegate to several of the Vermont Conven- 
tions; Captain in Herrick's Regiment of Rangers; died in Bur- 
lington, March 26th, 1806. (Men of Vermont, page 53.) [See al- 
so Hiland Hall's History of Vermont, page 451. J. A. H.] 

* Benedict Arnold entered the fort by the side of Allen. 
[Some authorities say ahead of Allen. J. A. H.] 

x* Thomas Ashley of Poultney, Vt., was one of seven 
brothers who came to that town and were among its first settlers. 
His brother Elijah said that Thomas was the next man to Allen 
that entered the Fort at Old Ticonderoga. He stood as sentinel 
at the head of the stairs when Allen entered the room of the com- 
mander and demanded the surrender of the fort. He was twice 
married, his second wife being the widow of Zebediah Dewey. 
(History of Poultney, page 29.) [See also Journal of Am. His. 
for 1909, Vol. Ill, No. 4, pp. 602-03, for silhouette and sketch 
J. A. H.] 

x* Samuel Barnet was a Scotchman. The town of Barnet, 
Vt., takes its name from this family. John Kennedy, who was at 
the capture, the brother-in-law of Barnet, was with him when they 
marched into the fort by the side of Ethan Allen. (Statement 
of Geo. Kennedy, Burlington, Vermont.) [He was afterwards 
Lt. Col. in Sheldon's Light Horse. Conn. His. Soc'y. Col. Vol. I. 
page 167. J. A. II.] 

Samuel Blagden of Salisbury, Conn., was with the party at 
Castleton and went to Whitehall. (Gordon's American Revolu- 
tion, pp. 11-12.) 

x* Gershom Beach of Salisbury, Vt., is said to have been 
present, (Proceedings Vermont Historical Society 1903-4, 
page 98.) 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 5 

* Ozias Bissell is said to have been present at the capture. 
(Empire State S. A. R., Reg. p. 381.) 

Thomas Barber, 3rd, was with the party at Norfolk, Conn. 
(Conn. Historical Collections, Vol. I, page 167.) 

* Col. John Brown of Pittsfield, entered the fort with Allen. 
A graduate of Yale College. King's attorney at Johnstown, N. Y., 
and acquainted with Sir John Johnson. Moved to Pittsfield, Mass., 
1773, held various military offices, killed October 19, 1780, in the 
36th year of his age. He is said to have been engaged in the cap- 
ture. (Conn. Men in Revolution Field's Berkshire, page 59. 
Chittenden, page 110.) [See Smith's History of Pittsfield, Mass.; 
J. G. Holland's History Western Massachusetts, and History Berk- 
shire County, Mass., for fuller details regarding Brown. J. A. H.] 

Epaphras Bull of Hartford, Conn., was one of the war com- 
mittee under whose direction the expedition proceeded. (Conn. 
Men in Revolution. Chittenden, page 103.) 

x* Nathan Beman, who was Allen's guide into the fort, in 
1835 wrote as follows : "I was over 18 years old and resided 
with my father, Samuel Beman, in the town of Shoreham, Vt., 
nearly opposite the fort. I had been in the habit of visiting the 
fort very frequently, being well acquainted with Captain Dela- 
place 's family and other young people residing there. On the day 
preceding the capture my father and mother dined by invitation 
with Captain Delaplace. I was with the party and spent the day 
in and about the fort. On our return to Shoreham in the evening 
and just as we were landing we discovered troops approaching who 
we soon ascertained to be Allen and his party. To my father, with 
whom he had been long acquainted, Allen stated his object, and 
the proper measures were at once concerted for at once accom- 
plishing it." (The Malone Palladium, May 28th, 1835.) [Be- 
man 's reputation for veracity suffered greatly at the hands of 
later historians. J. A. H.] 

Judge Samuel A. Beman of Malone, N. Y., is a lineal discend- 
ant of Nathan Beman. The judge adds a little family tradition: 
"Delaplace, upon seeing Nathan with Colonel Allen, exclaimed, 
'What, you here, Nathan, and am I your prisoner?' In response 



b NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

to the inquiry Nathan replied, 'Not mine, but Colonel Allen's.' " 
Nathan Beman afterwards served in Colonel Setli Warner's regi- 
ment, was with Montgomery at Montreal and Quebec; and his 
father, Samuel, served in Benedict Arnold's regiment in the same 
campaign. 

Samuel Beman, the father, lived at Shoreham upon the farm 
owned by the late Judge Myron Piatt, into which Hand's Cove pro- 
jects from Lake Champlain. It was from this cove that Allen and 
his party embarked for the capture of Fort Ti. In ancient days 
a little rivulet ran through this farm westerly toward Lake Cham- 
plain, cutting through clay banks of the lake making a deep and 
broad hollow in places a quarter or half a mile in width. It is a 
marsh filled with a tangled growth of wild grasses and rushes. 
The stream has almost disappeared although it was once sufficient 
to turn a sawmill. When the woods covered the hills the locality 
would form a convenient place where a considerable body of men 
might gather without danger of being observed from the opposite 
side of the lake. The mouth of the cove is probably two and one- 
half or three miles distant from the point upon Lake Champlain 
where Allen and his party landed on the New York shore. The 
Hand's Cove Chapter of the D. A. R. take their name from this 
historic spot and the patriotic ladies of this Chapter have erected 
a marker on the farm formerly owned by Samuel Beman to desig- 
nate the spot where Allen and his party embarked upon their im- 
mortal voyage. 

Nathan Beman married Jemima, daughter of John and 
Susanne Roberts of Manchester, Vt. Nathan appears in Man- 
chester not long after the capture of Fort Ti. and probably return- 
ed to that place with the expedition. He and his wife left Man- 
chester before 1800 and went to Ferrisburgh, Vt., removing thence 
to Plattsburgh, N. Y., where he became one of the first settlers of 
Chateaugay, N. Y. 

In the family of Nathan's wife the tradition obtains that 
Nathan was a playmate of the son of Captain Delaplace and that 
the captain's wife had been very kind to Nathan, and Nathan 
before undertaking to act as a guide for Allen, stipulated that no 
harm should come to either the boy or his mother. From this 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 7 

same source the information is obtained that Samuel Beman, the 
father, and his brother, Abner, were scouts in the employ of Wash- 
ington. (Statement of E. G. Tuttle, Manchester, Vt.) 

x* Major Samuel Beach of Whiting, Vt., was born in New 
Jersey, his parents removing to Virginia and finally to Vermont 
prior to the Revolution. He was at Castleton with Allen and was 
sent to rally the Green Mountain Boys. He started on this mis- 
sion at day-break, going from Castleton to Rutland, to Pittsford, 
Brandon, Leicester, Salisbury, Middlebury, Cornwall, Whiting and 
Shoreham, a distance of 64 miles. Smith in his history says this 
was accomplished "between the rising and the setting of the sun." 
Others say that the time occupied was 24 hours. Perhaps the ex- 
presssion "between the rising and the setting of the sun" may be 
considered a figurative one. Smith says, "The following day at 
early dawn he entered the fort by the side of Allen." His de- 
scendants still treasure the silk stockings worn by him on this 
march and the staff which he carried,and they likewise preserved a 
silk vest presented him by Washington, which has the general's 
profile woven in the silk in over 30 different places. He served 
throughout the revolution as a recruiting officer and in later years 
received a pension. Two daughters survive him. The monument 
marking his grave at Whiting village bears this inscription: 
"Major Samuel Beach, died April 10th, 1829, aged 77 years. An 
officer in the war of the Revolution and one of the few who under 
Allen surprised and took Ticonderoga. (Smith's History of Addi- 
son County, page 728. Statement E. N. Bissell, East Shore- 
ham, Vt.) 

x* Isaac Buck, supposed to have been born in New Milford, 
Conn., about 1735, married Elizabeth Waters; settled in Pittsford, 
Vt., about 1770 ; removed to Addison, Vt. ; died in Madrid, N. Y. ; 
entered the fort with Allen. (History of Pittsford, page 100.) 

Simeon Belding of Hartford, Conn., was with the expedition. 

Elijah Babcock was one of the four men from Hartford that 
accompanied the expedition. He was not present at the capture. 
(Chittenden, page 103.) 



8 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

Col. John Biglow, Hartford, Conn., accompanied the expedi- 
tion. He went to Skenesborough with Colonel Herrick. (Chit- 
tenden, page 103. Gordon's American Revolution, pp. 11-13.) 

* Amos Callender, born September 13, 1744, at Sheffield, 
Mass., a son of John and Mary Smith Callender. Married Johan- 
na Dewey, daughter of Captain Stephen Dewey. An early settler 
at Shoreham, Vt. The second meeting of the proprietors of that 
town w;as held at his house, 1783. He must have been near 
Allen and Arnold as they entered the fort for when the contro- 
versy arose between Allen and Arnold as to who should lead the 
men, each declaring he would go into the fort first, Allen turned 
to Amos and said: "What shall I do with the damned rascal? 
shall I put him under guard?" Callender suggested that they 
enter the fort together. After the capture he was sent in com- 
mand of a small party to take the fort at the head of Lake George 
and was afterwards sent with the prisoners to Hartford; Conn. 
(History of Shoreham, page 12. Statement of W. T. Dewey, Mont- 

pelier,Vt.) [Neither tradition nor history bear out the contention 
that Callender took Fort George. Col. Romans made the capture. 
DeCosta's Narrative of Events at Lake George, page 73. Holden*s 
Queensbury, pp. 395-404. J. A. H.] 

* Major Noah Callender was with his father, Amos Callen- 
der, and near enough to Allen as the latter entered the fort so that 
when the sentinel snapped his fuzee at Allen the latter struck a 
blow at the soldier's head which would have inflicted a wound 
thereon probably sufficient to have killed him if the force of the 
blow had not been broken by a comb with which the soldier's hair 
was done up. (History of Shoreham, page 16.) 

x* Col. John Chipman of Middlebury, Vt., the librarian of 
the Sheldon Art Museum at Middlebury, Vermont, says,— that Col. 
Chipman wrote : "I turned out at the commencement of the war 
as a volunteer with Col. Allen in the spring of 1775 to take Ticon- 
deroga and Crown Point. Was at the taking of St. John's and 
Montreal. Was in the battle of Hubbard ton, also in the battle 
of Bennington and at Saratoga at the taking of Burgoyne." Prof. 
Kellogg in a sketch of the life of Col. Chipman written in 1866 
says that Col. Chipman was present as a volunteer when Allen 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 177.". V 

seized the keys to Ticonderoga. (Henry L. Sheldon, Middlebury, 
Vermont.) [Col. Chipman was in command of Fort George 
(Town of Caldwell, N. Y.), in 1780, and forced to surrender to 
Major Christopher Carieton Oct, 11, 1780. See DeCosta's Lake 
George. Holden's History Queensbury. Hough's Northern In- 
vasion. J. A. H.] 

x Col. Robert Cochran of Rupert, Vermont, was one of the 
captains in the Ticonderoga expedition and went with AVarner to 
the capture of Crown Point the next day. He died at Sandy Hill, 
N. Y., July 3rd, 1812, and is buried in the Union cemetery at Fort 
Edward, N. Y. (Men of Vermont, page 52.) [Two Mss. orderly 
books belonging to Col. Cochran are in my possession, and his cer- 
tificate of membership in the Order of the Cincinnati is in the A. 
W. Holden Collection at the Glens Falls Academy. It is signed 
by George Washington and Henry Knox. J. A. II. | 

x* Col. Benjamin Cooley, born April 30, 1747, married in 
1773 Ruth Beach, was one of the first settlers in the town of Pitts- 
ford, Vermont, Came from Greenwich, Mass. He and Isaac 
Buck, Jr., John Deming, Hopkins Rowley and Ephraim Stevens 
all of Pittsford, were among the men that responded to the call of 
Major Samuel Beach when he made the celebrated march rallying 
the Green Mountain boys. Caverly in his history of Pittsford says 
that these five men were among the first to cross the lake, to enter 
the covered passage, and to. parade upon the square within the fort. 
This claim is sufficiently explicit to entitle all of these five men to 
a place among the immortal eighty-three. Cooley died February 
27, 1810. There are many descendants in Vermont and through- 
out the West. It is said that Cooley got the word from Beach him- 
self and notified the other four. (History of Pittsford, page 100. 
Statement of W. B. Butler, Florence, Vt.) 

* John Crigo of Shoreham, Vermont, was one of the first 
settlers of that town where he lived 1766. He entered the Fort 
with Allen. (History of Shoreham, page 12.) 

* Amariah Dana, son of Samuel Dana, married Dorothy 
May and resided in Pomfret, Conn., until about 1771, when he 
removed with his family to Amherst, Mass. He was born 1738, 



10 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

died 1830, the father of sixteen children. It is a matter of fam- 
ily tradition that he was one of Allen's party at the capture of Fort 
Ti. This tradition is somewhat strengthened by the obituary 
notice of one of his daughters, in which notice her father is men- 
tioned as one of those who were with Ethan Allen at the capture 
of Fort Ti. There are descendants in Vermont and Pennsylvania. 
(Statement of S. W. Dana, New Castle, Pa. Statement Mrs. C. 
H. Lane, Middlebury, Vermont.) 

Captain Asa Douglas of Jericho, Mass., accompanied the ex- 
pedition and seems to be the man who went to Panton, Vermont, 
to secure boats for the expedition across Lake Champlain. It is 
said that he has relatives living in that town. 

* Captain Israel Dickinson of Pittsfield, Mass., accompanied 
the expedition and it would seem from Col. Easton's report that 
he was present at the capture. (History of Pittsfield, Mass., p. 
222.) He is said to have been " engaged in the capture. " (Conn. 
Men in the Revolution.) 

* Matthew Dunning of South Williamstown, Mass., was 
present at the capture. (Mass. Soldier's & Sailors' of the Revolu- 
tion. ) 

* John Deming of Pittsforcl, Vermont, is said to have been 
formerly from Conn., and there is a tradition that he was an In- 
dian trader and fighter. He was one of the Pittsford party and 
entered the fort. No further information. (History of Pitts- 
ford, p. 100.) 

x Josiah Dunning, born in Newtown, Conn., October 7, 1775, 
removed to Pownal, Vermont, afterwards to Williamson, New 
York. In 1775 while living at Pownal he enlisted in a volunteer 
company for the capture of Fort Ti., under Captain Samuel 
Wright. The company marched to Castleton. Dunning was one 
of the party that went to Skenesborough, now Whitehall, and after 
the capture of that place they sailed in a schooner down the lake, 
arriving at Ticonderoga the morning after the surrender. He wit- 
nessed a dispute between Col. Allen and Col. Arnold relative to 
which one of them was entitled to the command. Both drew their 
swords and the men under their commands had raised and cocked 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 11 

their muskets when a private named Edward Richards stepped 
forward and with great firmness commanded both officers to put 
up their swords and called on the soldiers of both parties to arrest 
them if they did not desist. This ended the dispute. Dunning 
was afterwards captain of a company and was engaged in the bat- 
tle of Bennington and also at Saratoga. (Pension Record Josiah 
Dunning. ) 

x* Lieut. Benjamin Everest came with his father to Addi- 
son, Vermont, about 1768. He was with Allen at the capture of 
Fort Ti.and went with Warner to the capture of Crown Point. He 
participated in the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington and for 
his bravery received the thanks of Warner. His tombstone says 
he was born at Salisbury, Conn., January 12th, 1752, died March 
3rd, 1843. The same authority speaks of him as "the Christian, 
the philanthropist, the Revolutionary hero and the patriot." 
Smith's History Addison County, p. 369.) [Lieut. Everest was 
the grandfather of Charles F. Everest of Glens Falls. Lieut. 
Everest had several narrow escapes from the Indians once jump- 
ing overboard, after being captured by them, although it was 
November, and swimming a long distance in Lake Champlain. 
Upon another occasion he skated away on the ice, from a party of 
Indians who had surrounded him. Vermont Historical Magazine, 
pp. 10-11-12. J. A. H.] 

* Col. James Easton, Pittsfield, Mass., was second in com- 
mand and entered the fort with Allen. The second sentinel en- 
countered by the storming party as they entered the fort made a 
thrust at Col. Easton when Allen struck the sentinel on the head 
with his sword. Col. Mott in his report says that Col Easton was 
of great service both in counsel and government. (History of 
Pittsfield, pp. 218-221. Conn. Men in the Revolution.) 

x* Dr. Jonas Fay of Bennington seems to have accompanied 
the expedition in capacity of surgeon and was among those who 
received pay for their services on this expedition. (Conn. Men in 
the Revolution. Men of Vermont, p. 51.) [See Dawson's Hist. 
Mag. 2nd series, Vol. I, page 109, letter of Allen about Fay's ser- 
vices. J. A. H.l 



12 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

x Josiah Fuller of Bennington, Vermont, "Surgeon's Mate" 
was paid by the State of Connecticut for his services on this expe- 
dition. (Conn. Men in the Revolution.) 

George Foote of Castleton, Vermont, afterwards of Benning- 
ton, was one of the pioneers of Vermont and one of the party of 
Green Mountain boys to apply the "beach seal" to the settlement 
of Yorkers at Vergennes. He stood by the side of Allen on the 
10th of May when the demand for the surrender of Fort Ticonde- 
made. A correspondent says that he has seen a letter 
from a brother of George Foote in which the brother says that 
George was the third man from Ethan Allen when they went into 
the fort. (Foote Genealogy. G. G. Benedict, Burlington, Ver- 
mont.) 

Ezra Keacock, Sheffield, Conn., accompanied the expedition 
and went with Noah Phelps at the time the latter entered the fort 
as a spy. (Chittenden's Ticonderoga, page 104. Conn. Men in 
the Revolution.) 

x Col. Samuel Herrick was with the expedition at Castleton 
and was sent from there to Skenesborough in command of the ex- 
pedition directed against the establishment at that place. (Men 
of Vermont, p. 49.) 

Elias Herrick of Hartford was one of the Connecticut party. 

[Lieut.] Jeremiah Halsey of Preston, Conn., accompanied the 
expedition and went to Albany— probably to buy provisions. 
(Chittenden's Ticonderoga, p. 103.) [See also Journal of Capt. 
Mott, page 169. Conn. Hist. Col, Vol. I. J. A. H.] 

* Israel Flarris, born February, 1747, Cornwall, Conn., mar- 
ried Sarah Morris, resided at Williamstown, Mass., 1775. Moved 
to Rutland, Vermont, 1782, thence to South Hartford, N. Y.,where 
he died November 28, 1836. He entered the service in May, 1775, 
and volunteered to march with a company under Col. Allen against 
the fortress of Ticonderoga. He marched from Williamstown 
to Castleton, Vermont, thence to Ticonderoga and entered the 
fortress on the morning of May 10. In a few days he returned 
to Williamstown. Family tradition says that he entered the fort 
just behind Allen. He was present at the surrender of St. Johns 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 13 

in December, 1775, and participated in another expedition in July 
to Fort Anne. Was engaged in the battle of Bennington and was 
granted a captain's pension by the United States. The Israel 
Harris Chapter, D. A. P., of Granville, N. Y., takes its name from 
this member of the Spartan band. Among the descendants of this 
family the tradition is strong and often repeated that Allen's first 
salutation to Delaplace was "Come out of that hole, you damned 
old rat, ' ' and the statement is also often repeated that Harris him- 
self said that he was directly behind Allen when they entered the 
fort. (Pension Office Records. Statement of Jos. Northrup, St. 
Albans, Vt. ; of Arthur Harris Smythe, Columbus, Ohio ; and of 
James D. Butler, Madison, Wis., "Butlerania," page 99.) 

* Nehemiah Hoit of Castleton, Vermont, was the third man 
to enter the fortress after Ethan Allen. (Hemenway's Gazetteer, 
Vol. 3, page 506.) 

Gershom Hewitt of Hartford, Conn., was with the party at 
Castleton and went to Albany with Capt. Stevens to buy pro- 
visions. (Chittenden, page 104.) 

x* Thomas Johnston, of Newbury, Vt., is said to have been 
present at the capture. (Vermont Historical Society proceedings, 
1903-4, page 98.) 

* Noah Jones of Shoreham, Vermont, is said to have been 
present at the capture. (Id.) 

x* John Kennedy, Sr., in his lifetime said that he marched 
into Fort Ti by the side of Ethan Allen and heard him when he 
demanded the surrender of the fort. He also said that Samuel 
Barnet, his brother-in-law, was with him at the time. John Ken- 
nedy, Sr., was one of the first settlers of the town of Bolton, Ver- 
mont, A descendent of John Kennedy states that Kennedy's 
share of the prize money at the capture of Fort Ti amounted to 
^80. Kennedy was a quartermaster in the expedition and was at 
the taking of Crown Point the next day. He died of fever in the 
service of his country and was buried at Mt. Independence, Or- 
well, Vermont. (Statement of George W. Kennedy, Burlington, 
Vt., and of Sarah Kennedy Lord, Burlington, Vt.) 

* John Kennedy, Jr., son of the preceding, is said to have 
acted as Allen's aid and to have entered the fort with Allen. He 



14 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

was accustomed to tell his children how the commander of the 
fortress came to the door "with his breeches in his hand" and 
how he "never forgot the look of his pale face and naked legs." 
(Statement of Sarah Kennedy Lord, Burlington, Vt.) 

Samuel Keep of Salisbury, Conn., was one of the original 
grantees of Salisbury, Vermont, He settled at Crown Point about 
1773 and it is said that he was one of Allen's advisors in taking 
the fort. Whether he was present at the capture does not appear. 
He died in Brandon, 1802, aged 71. (Smith's History of Addi- 
son County.) 

* Elijah Kellogg was one of the early settlers of Shoreham, 
Vermont, 1766. Is said to have been the first man to enter the 
fort after Allen and Arnold. He was taken prisoner in 1777 in 
an engagement near Castleton and subsequently made his escape. 
Smith's History of Addison County, page 612. History of Shore- 
ham, page 12.) [Hemingway's Vt. Historical Mag. (Addison) 
page 94, calls this man "Elias." J. A. H.] 

x* Samuel Laughton of Dummerston is said to have been 
present at the capture. (Vermont Historical Society proceedings, 
1903-4, page 98.) 

x* Matthew Lyon said he was present at the capture. I am 
indebted to a gentleman in New York city for the following in- 
formation : The biography of Matthew Lyon quotes from Annals 
of the 10th Congress, second session, page 1416, a speech made by 
Lyon, February 7, 1809, in which he says: "I was a private sol- 
dier in one of those companies called minute men who first took up 
arms in defence of the cause of American liberty and with my 
gun on my shoulder marched to take Ticonderoga under the com- 
mand of Ethan Allen." (Pages 113 & 115.) Again at page 498, 
in a letter written in 1817 Lyon says, ' ' immediately after the Lex- 
ington battle I joined Ethan Allen. Eighty-five of us took from 
140 British veterans the Fort Ticonderoga," etc. This statement 
of Matthew Lyon that there were eighty-five present differs from 
the commonly accepted number of eighty-three as stated by Allen 
himself, but perhaps Allen did not include himself or Arnold in 
the statement that he took the fort with eightv-three men. The 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 15 

subsequent statement of Lyon that there were 140 British veterans 
would indicate that he was not very accurate in his statement of 
numbers, however, this may be, the declaration seems to be clear 
and unequivocal that he was present at the capture. 

x* Josiah Lewis of Poultney, Vt., came from Connecticut to 
that place in 1771. He was present at the capture of Ticonde- 
roga and was in the battle of Hubbardton. He married Mollie 
Cole in Connecticut. It is said that she rendered important ser- 
vice for the patriots in carrying news, etc., and was paid the same 
as the soldiers were and that she also received a grant of land of 
160 acres in recognition of her services to the Continental army. 
(History of Poultney, page 299.) 

* Captain Lusk. — Governor Trumbull wrote Schuyler March 
1st. 1776, that Captain Lusk was "at the first taking of Ticonde- 
roga." 

Ensign Lewis was one of the men who was paid for his ser- 
vices on this expedition by the State of Connecticut. (Conn. Men 
in the K evolution.) 

Captain Noah Lee was with Allen's party at Castleton. From 
there he was sent with the command that captured Skenesborough. 
He entered the service when he was but fifteen years of age and 
saw the surrender of Cornwallis, after which he returned to Cas- 
tleton, where he died. A monument has been erected in his honor 
at Castleton by his grandson. (Granville, N. Y., Sentinel, 1903. 
Chittenden, page 12.) 

Capt. Edward Mott of Preston, Conn., was chairman of the 
war committee that had charge of the expedition for the capture 
of Ticonderoga. He did not enter the fort. (Chittenden, 
page 105.) 

* Major Amos Morrill.— The authority for placing his name 
in the roll is derived from the statement in the family Bible, for- 
merly in the possession of the late Jeremiah S. Morrill of St. Al- 
bans, Vt., who was a grandson of Major Amos Morrill. This state- 
ment reads as follows: "Old Major Amos Morrill, who came from 
New Hampshire, enlisted for the Revolution and served all through 
the war of eight years. One of the first companies raised was 



16 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

brought together at Epson, N. H. He then enlisted as lieutenant. 
At Bunker Hill the captain was killed and then he was made cap- 
tain. He was with Ethan Allen at the taking of Ticonderoga and 
was one of the eight men to go into the enemies' camp at night. 
Major Morris died 1810, at St. Albans, Vt. ' ' The reference to the 
eight men going into the enemies' camp at night is not understood 
by the writer and whether it relates to Ticonderoga is perhaps un- 
certain. Major Morrill came to Vermont from Epson, N. H., 1795. 
When the family Bible says he was pesent at the taking we are 
bound to believe that he was one of the immortal eight-three. 
(Statement of Abbie A. Morrill, North Troy, Vt.) [See also Ver- 
mont Historical Proceedings, 1903-04, page 98. Quere— Could the 
eight men going to the enemies' camp at night have any connection 
with the legend given further on, that a party of patriots made the 
English soldiers tipsy? J. A. H.] 

William Nichols of Hartford, Conn., was clerk of the war ocm- 
mittee. Went to Whitehall. He appears to have kept Romans' 
accounts of the disbursements on this expedition and there is an 
entry which shows that Heman Allen was paid one pound for 
sundries. (Gordon's American Revolution, page 11-13. Chitten- 
den, page 103, DeCosta's Notes on the History of Lake George.) 

x Luke Noble of Rupert, Vermont, is said to have been with 
the expedition. This statement rests entirely upon family tradi- 
tion. If present he could not have been more than fourteen years 
of age. He was born February 24, 1761, at Southwick, Mass., and 
died 1848, at Rupert, Vt. (Statement of Jennie F. Stewart, Rens- 
selaer, N. Y.) 

* Daniel Newton of Shoreham, Vermont, was an early set- 
tler in that town. As Allen's party were on their way to Hand's 
Cove they found him chopping. He set his axe at the side of the 
tree and joined the party. He died in 1834, aged 80 years. A 
surveyor by profession and is said to have been the original from 
which the character of Pete Jones in the "Green Mountain Boys" 
was taken. It is said that Judge D. P. Thompson, the author of 
the "Green Mountain Boys," made this selection at the sugges- 
tion of Governor Jennison of Shoreham, Vt.,who was a near neigh- 
bor of Daniel Newton. (History of Shoreham, pp. 11, 17, 19; 
Statement of Elmer Barnum, Shoreham, Vt.) 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 17 

Capt. Noah Phelps of Simsbury, Conn., was one of the war 
committee. He was the spy who entered the fort disguised as a 
farmer in search of a barber. He successfully entered the fort and 
made himself familiar with the garrison and reported to Allen that 
it was practicable to surprise the fortress. From the fact that 
Allen when he reached Hand's Cove secured the service of Nathan 
Beman as a guide the inference is that Phelps did not regard it as 
prudent to accompany Allen's party. He was born May 6, 1759, 
and died unmarried in the American army at Valley Forge. 
(Force's Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. 2, page 556. History of 
Shoreham, page 12.) 

Capt. Elisha Phelps of Simsbury, Conn., was a brother of 
Noah and was commissary of the party that went to Whitehall. 
(Chittenden, page 112.) 

Capt. Samuel H. Parsons of Deerfleld, Mass., was one of the 
expedition. (Conn. Historical Society, Vol. 1, page 181.) 

* Rice is said to have been present at the capture. 

Lossing in his field book of the Revolution speaks of Isaac Rice 
who served as his guide at Fort Ti, and it would appear that Isaac 
had a brother whose first name is not mentioned, who was present 
with Allen at the time of the surrender. [In the N. E. Mag. for 
April, 1901, page 127, is a picture of the broken headstone of Isaac 
Rice who was buried in the old Fort cemetery in 1852. J. A. H.] 

* Eli Robards of Vergennes, Vt., is said to have been one of 
the expedition and to have crossed in the same boat with Allen. If 
this be true he was one of the eighty-three. I have found no other 
authority than family tradition for this statement. (Statement 
of C. D. Waite, 702 St. Nicholas Avenue, N. Y. City.) 

x* Thomas Rowley of Shoreham, Vt., was one of Allen's 
party. An early settler of that town. He came originally from 
Hebron, Conn. He was the first town clerk of Dauby, Vt., and 
represented that town in the legislature and was chairman of the 
Committee of Safety. He was one of the judges of Rutland 
County, Vt. Settled in Larrabee's Point in the town of Shoreham, 
which place was for some years called Rowley's Point. He died at 



18 NEW YORK ST vTE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

Cold Spring in the town of Benson, Vermont, 1803. Was present 
at the capture. (History of Shoreham, page 12.) 

x* Thomas Rowley, Jr., son of the above lived for sometime 
in Shoreham ; left that place in 1814 and moved to Buffalo, N. Y., 
where he died. He entered the fort with Allen. (History of 
Shoreham, page 162.) 

x* Hopkins Rowley of Pittsford was a son of Jonathan Row- 
ley and removed to Shoreham, Vt. He was one of the Pittsford 
party and is said to have crossed the lake with the first detach- 
ment. (History of Shoreham, page 12. Statements of G. W. B. 
Butler, Florence, Vt., and Mary T. Randall, Pittsford, Vt.) 

x John Roberts of Manchester, Vermont, was born 1727; 
married, 1745, Susanna Mayhew, a lineal descendent of Gov. 
Thomas Mayhew of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. He came 
to Manchester in 1764 with the first settlers, bringing his wife and 
seven children ; Peter, born 1747 ; Benjamin, born 1749 ; John, born 
1751; Christopher, born 1753; Jemima, born 1755; Elizabeth, born 
1757, and William, born 1759. The father and all of his sons were 
identified with the Green Mountain Boys and with Allen and Ar- 
nold in the early troubles with the Yorkers and the family tradi- 
tion is strong that the father and his five sons participated in the 
expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In some for- 
mer list all of these six names have been found among the eighty- 
three and it is with reluctance that any change is made in this list. 
It is altogether probable that all of them participated in the ex- 
pedition and of Christopher it seems to be so well established that 
he was at the capture that his name must remain in the list. How- 
ever, it seems as if, if the father and the five sons had been present 
at the capture, that Judge Munson in his history of Manchester 
wiould have mentioned the fact, whereas he only makes mention of 
Christopher as being one of the guides of the expedition and as 
one of the first to enter the fort. John Roberts, the father, was 
undoubtedly present on the expedition and afterwards went to 
Canada, was taken prisoner and after his return enlisted ' ' for the 
whole war." He died 1798. 

x Peter Roberts married Jane Baker, 1768, and lived at Dor- 
set, Vermont. He engaged in the expedition against Ticonderoga 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 17T5 19 

and Crown Point, raised a company of men and went to Canada 
under Warner in 1775, and was in the military service of his coun- 
try until 1782. He participated in the battles of Hubbardton, 
Bennington and Saratoga and afterwards removed to Plattsburgh. 

x Benjamin Roberts married Annice, daughter of Eliakin 
Weller. He was one of the Green Mountain Boys and participated 
in the expedition against Ticonderoga. Was in the expedition 
against Canada and in the engagement at Hubbardton and Ben- 
nington. Subsequently removed to Plattsburg, N. Y., and after- 
wards to Chateaugay. 

x John Roberts married Edna Hilliard of Manchester, Vt. 
Was engaged in the expedition against Canada. Was in the bat- 
tles of Hubbardton and Bennington. Removed to Salmon River, 
N. Y. A daughter of his married Capt. Smith Mead. Their 
daughter married Roswell Weed, the ancestor of Smith M. Weed 
of Plattsburg. the eminent Democratic statesman. 

x* Gen. Christopher Roberts married Mary, daughter of Ben- 
jamin Purdy. By this marriage Christopher was a brother-in- 
law of Peleg Sutherland, the eminent Vermont partisan. Christo- 
pher is said to have been the third man to enter Fort Ti, with Al- 
len. The fact that the claim for this position is made by so many 
different men does not suggest that any of the claims are fictitious 
but rather that the men speak of a different period as the time 
when Allen entered the fort. Christopher was engaged in the bat- 
tles of Hubbardton and Bennington; was in command of a com- 
pany detailed to take the women and children to Massachusetts for 
safety. He held many town and county offices ; was a prominent 
mason and received his first degree with other Green Mountain 
Boys from Seth Warner under a dispensation from a lodge in Con- 
necticut. He died 1832. Judge Munson says that Christopher 
was one of Allen's guides and was one of the first to enter the fort: 

x AVilliam Roberts married Rachel Andrus and was with his 
brothers in the expedition against Ticonderoga ; was engaged in the 
battles at Hubbardton and Bennington; lived in Dorset, Vermont. 
This family was known as the "Fighting Roberts Family," and 
considering the remarkable military record of the father and the 
five sons it is not surprising that they came to be thus designated. 



20 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

(Munson's History of Manchester, page 21. Statement of E. G. 
Tuttle, Manchester Center, Vt.) 

Bernard Romans of Hartford, Conn., seems to have been en- 
trusted with important responsibility in the beginning of the ex- 
pedition. He appears to have become dissatisfied and while he 
took part to some extent in the expedition he was not present at 
the capture and does not seem to have operated in harmony with 
the other men. He was born in Holland and died about 1783. At 
Bennington May 3rd, 1775, he paid Elisha Phelps 60 pounds for 
use of the colony of Connecticut. (DeCosta's notes on the History 
of Fort George.) [He was also the captor of Fort George. 
J. A. H.] 

x Edward Richards.— From the statement contained in the 
application for the pension of Josiah Dunning he appears to have 
been present the day after the capture of Ticonderoga,. but 
whether he was one of the eighty-three or not is not known. (Pen- 
sion Office Records of Josiah Dunning.) 

x Capt. John Stevens seems to have been one of the party 
and it is said that he went to Albany possibly to buy provisions 
and was probably with the party at Castleton. (Chittenden, 
page 103.) [See also Conn. Hist. Collections, Vol. I, page 169.] 

x Peleg Sunderland went with Seth Warner to the capture 
of Crown Point and must have been present at Hand's Cove, but 
whether he was present at the capture of Ticonderoga is uncertain. 
(Robinson's Vermont, page 111, Chittenden, page 109.) 

x* Stephen Smith of Manchester, Vt., entered the fort with 
Allen. Removed to Shoreham 1784. He is sometimes called Capt. 
Stephen Smith. He was one of the four brothers who settled early 
in Shoreham and from whom the beautiful and picturesque Smith 
Street takes its name. (History of Shoreham, page 12.) 

x* Nathan Smith, Jr., son of Nathan, brother of Stephen 
above mentioned, came to Shoreham about 1786. Was present at 
the capture of Ticonderoga. His father, Major Nathan Smith, 
was in the battle of Bennington and was one of the first two to 
scale the breastworks of the British. (History of Shoreham, 
page 23.) 



THE TICONDEROG.V EXPEDITION OF 1775 



21 



x John Stevens of Canaan, Conn., was one of the party from 
that State. 

x* Ephraim Stevens of Pittsford, Vermont, a son of Roger 
Stevens and Mary Doolittle, sister of Col. Doolittle of Shoreham, 
was a brother of Roger Stevens, the celebrated tory. Was one of 
the five who went from Pittsford and is said to have crossed the 
lake with Allen's party and to have come originally from Dutchess 
County, N. Y. (History of Pittsford, pp. 100-103. (Statement 
of W. B. Butler, Florence, Vt.) 

x* Col. John Spafford of Tinmouth, Vermont, was born in 
Connecticut, died at Lowville, N. Y., April 24, 1883, aged 71 years. 
An obituary in an unknown paper states that "he with his com- 
pany was with Allen and Arnold in the taking of Ticonderoga and 
was by them directed to join in the expedition under Col. Warner 
against Crown Point, but he reached that important post before 
Col. Warner and received himself the sword of the commander, 
which is now in Col. Spafford 's family." Some search by the 
writer has been made for this sword without success. Col. Spaf- 
ford represented his town in the legislature of his State and had a 
family of thirteen children ; was captain of a company in the Battle 
of Bennington and from his own stores provided the supplies for 
his company. One of his children, Horatio Gates Spafford, born 
at Dorset, Vermont, just after the battle of Bennington, was the 
author of the well known Spafford 's Gazetteer of New York. Col. 
John married Mary Baldwin. She died September 9, 1842, at the 
house of her son, Heman Spafford, at Rutland, Vermont. Col. 
Spafford with his wife, a bride of but a few months, in 1772 came 
to Tinmouth from Connecticut in an ox-cart. (Statement of Hat- 
tie Piatt Squires, North Clarendon, Vt. Vermont Historical Maga- 
zine, Vol. 3.) [Dat of death impossible, probably 1823.] 

x Col. Seth Warner was in command of the rear guard. He 
remained on the Vermont side at the time that Allen crossed Lake 
Champlain with his party. He had command of the expedition 
that captured Crown Point. (Chittenden, page 104.) 

x Joseph Tyler of Bridport, Vermont, was the companion of 
James Wilcox in the expedition to obtain boats wherewith to cross 



22 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

Lake Cliamplain. The two young men are said to have been asleep 
in the house of Mr. Stone at Bridport on the night when the mes- 
senger arrived there and stated to Mr. Stone that he was in search 
of boats for the use of Allen's party. These two young men suc- 
ceeded in decoying a boat which was in Lake Champlain in charge 
of a negro belonging to Major Skene, to the shore, where under 
promise of some whiskey they induced the negro to row them to 
Shoreham to join a hunting party. When they arrived at Hand's 
Cove the negro was made a prisoner. Tyler apparently was not 
a member of the expedition originally but seems to have joined it 
at the Cove with Major Skene's boat. 

x* Lieut. Samuel Torrey, born Leicester, Mass., June 22nd, 
1753, removed to Guilford, Vermont died November 15th, 1838. 
Married first Sabra Herrick, January 13, 1785; married second 
Hester Allen, January 5, 1795 ; married third Olive Smalley Gains, 
Oct. 1, 1795. It is an ancient and apparently well established 
tradition that Lieut. Torrey was one of the eighty-three to enter 
the fort with Allen. Abel Ripley Torrey of Detroit, Mich., in 
1875 said that his father, Samuel, was one of those that entered 
the fort with Ethan Allen. (Statement of T. M. Tobin, Swanton, 
Vermont, and Clarence Almon Torrey, University of Chicago, 111.) 

x* Lieut. Col. Joseph Wait, born 1732, was an officer in the 
Continental Army; a brother of Benjamin Wait mentioned below 
and a son of John Wait. Family tradition and a statement pub- 
lished in a newspaper are the authorities for placing the name of 
Joseph Wait among the 83 present with Allen at the capture of 
Fort Ti. 

x* Benjamin Wait, brother of the above, saw military service 
prior to the Revolution. He married a daughter of Capt. Thomas 
Gilbert of Brookfield, Mass. He was a delegate from Windsor, 
Vt., to the convention at Westminister, 1775, and was a delegate 
to the convention that formed the first Vermont constitution. To- 
gether with three brothers he served in Herrick 's Rangers in the 
battle of Bennington. In 1775 his conduct was commended by the 
Vermont State Council in a letter to Col. Samuel Herrick. In 
1779 the General Assembly of Vermont granted a charter of the 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1T75 33 

islands of North Hero and South Hero in Lake Champlain to Ethan 
Allen, Samuel Herrick and Benjamin Wait. The town of Waits- 
field, Vermont, takes its name from this family. He occupied 
many prominent official positions with great credit to himself. He 
died February 28, 1822. He is buried by the roadside in Claren- 
den, Vermont, about three miles south of Rutland, where he died. 
A monument erected by his fellow officers marks the spot. Family 
tradition says that he was present at the capture of Ticonderoga. 
(Statement of Horatio L. Wait, Chicago, 111., Thompson's Ver- 
mont, part 3, page 178.) [See also History of Waitsfield, Vt., re- 
cently published, Boston, 1909. J. A. H.] 

* Amos Wells was with the party at Norfolk. 

* Amos Weller, born in Sharon, Vt., in 1755, married Demis 
Rowley of that place, 1776; resided at Tinmouth, Vermont, after- 
wards at Rutland. He was a man of great physical power and 
among his descendants the tradition is preserved that when Allen 
arrived at the fort the gate was barred, and Allen turned to Wel- 
ler and said, "Amos, put shoulder to," and together they forced 
the gate. Weller was placed on guard over twelve men with 
orders to shoot the first who should make resistance. He saw con- 
siderable military service after this time ; was present at the cap- 
ture of Crown Point and at the engagement at St. Johns. (Rec- 
ords at Pension Office. Statement of Kate Wright Prouty, Bur- 
lington, Vt., Smith's History of Addison County, page 764.) [All 
published accounts agree that the postern or wicket gate was open 
although the larger gate was closed. J. A. H.] 

x James Wilcox of Bridport, Vt., was with Allen at Ticon- 
deroga and was the companion of Tyler in the adventure to secure 
boats for the expedition to cross Lake Champlain, and must have 
been with the expedition at Hand's Cove. (Smith's History of 
Addison County, page 39-3.) 

* Wilkes West. — His tombstone at Chester, N. H., has this 
inscription: "AVilkes West, born in Beverly, Mass., December 6, 
1735, died at Chester, N. H., April 10, 1830, aged 94 years, four 
months, four days. He took part in the battle of Bennington and 
was with Col. Ethan Allen at the taking of Fort Ticonderoga, New 



24 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

York. This tablet was erected by his grandson, Henry Mason 
West, 1886." Inscriptions on tombstones, like those in family 
Bibles, we are bound to believe are entitled to credence. (State- 
ment of E. W. Sherman, Poultney, Vermont.) 

x Captain Samuel Wright, probably from Pownal, Vermont, 
seems to have been captain of a company that participated in this 
expedition. (Application of Josiah Dunning for Pension.) 

* Samuel Woolcott of Shoreham, Vt,, came from Goshen, 
Conn., settled in Shoreham, 1773. Entered the fort with Allen. 
(History of Shoreham, page 12.) 

* Samuel Woolcott, Jr., son of the preceding, of Shoreham. 
Vt., also entered the fort with Allen. 



THE RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION.. 

Ethan Allen captured Ticonderoga. 
Seth AVarner captured Crown Point. 
Captain Samuel Herrick captured Skenesborough. 
[Bernard Romans] captured the fort at the head of Lake George. 
Benedict Arnold captured the British schooner on Lake Champlain 
and the garrison at St. Johns. 

AT TICONDEROGA WERE TAKEN 

120 Iron Cannon [from 6 to 24 pounders]. 
50 Swivels [of different sizes]. 

2 Ten-inch Mortars. 
1 Howitzer. 

1 Cohorn. 

10 Tons of Musket Balls. 

3 Cart Loads of Flints. 
30 New Carriages. 

A considerable quantity of Shells. 

A warehouse full of material for boat building. 

100 stands of Small Arms. 

10 Casks of [very indifferent] powder. 

2 Brass Cannon. 

30 Barrels of Flour. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 



25 



18 Barrels of Pork with Peas, Beans and other provisions. 

Stedman Amer. War, Vol. I. Page 131]. 
The prisoners were : 
Capt. Delaplace. 
Lieut. Feltham. 
A Conductor of Artillery. 
A Gunner. 
Two Sergeants. 
44 Privates— 51 men in all [besides the women and children] 



[Se* 



AT CROWN POINT WERE TAKEN 

100 Pieces of Cannon. 

A Sergeant and 12 Men. 

Another account of the cannon captured by Col. Ethan Allen gives 

their number and weight as follows : 

2 brass cohorns weight, lbs. 

4 brass cohorns weight, lbs. 

2 brass mortars weight, lbs. 

1 iron mortar weight, lbs. 

2 iron mortars weight. 

3 iron mortars weight, 
8 brass cannon (3 pounders) weight. 

3 brass cannon (6 pounders). weight, 
1 brass cannon (18 pounder). weight. 
1 brass cannon (24 pounder). weight, lbs 

6 iron cannon (6 pounders) weight. 

4 iron cannon (9 pounders) weight. 
10 iron cannon (12 pounders) weight, lbs 

7 double fortification cannon weight, lbs, 
3 other cannon weight, lbs. 
Also 2 iron howitzers. 

Supplement New York in the Revolution, page 52. J. A. H. 

[May 19, Benedict Arnold writing to the Massachusetts Com- 
mittee of Safety gives a list of the cannon, etc., taken at Crown 
Point amounting to 111 pieces, also the guns, carriages, etc., sur- 

* A cohorn or coehorn is defined as a small howitzer or mortar about 
4.6 inches in caliber, usually carried by men or on small boats. 



300* 
400 
600 
600 
3600 
6900 
28000 
1800 
1200 
1800 
lbs. 15000 
lbs. 10000 
28000 
28000 
15000 



lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 



26 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

rendered at Ticonderoga, which gives a better idea of their condi- 
tion than the one just quoted. Force's Arch., 4th Series, Vol. II, 
page 646. 

A LIST OF CANNON, &c, TAKEN AT TICONDEROGA. 

3 18-pounders, good. 

2 French-pounders, bad. 

2 12-pounders, good. 

6 12-pounders, double fortified, 

good. 
2 12-pounders, useless. 
12 9-pounders, good. 
5 9-pounders, bad. 

18 6-pounders, bad. 
9 4-pounders, good. 
16-pounder, good. 

19 swivels, good. 

2 wall pieces, good. 

2 French 12-pounders, bad. 

1 13-inch mortar and bed, good. 

1 7-inch mortar and bed, good. 

1 7-inch howitzer, good. 



28 iron truck wheels. 

10 carriages, fit for use. 
N. B.— I shall send to Cambridge the 24-pounders, 12 and 
6-pounders, howitzers, &c, as directed by Colonel Gridley. Four 
brass howitzers in the edge of the lake, and covered with water, 
cannot come at present. J. A. H.] 

ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN WAS TAKEN 
1 schooner and a sergeant and 12 men at St. Johns. 

AT THE HEAD OF LAKE GEORGE. 

One man and one woman [and possibly two male helpers], the 
sole garrison were taken prisoners. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 27 

AT SKENESBOROUGH, NOW WHITEHALL. 

[Major Skene's son Phillip and his sisters were taken prisoners. 
A store house and contents were captured, also a schooner and 
a number of flat boats] . 

The persons captured at Ticonderoga were taken to Connecti- 
cut under charge of Amos Callendar. The cannon were the next 
winter removed to Boston by means of teams. [This service was 
performed under direction of Col., afterwards Major General 
Henry Knox, whose idea it was. He reached Ticonderoga from 
Boston (by way of New York and the Hudson) Dec. 5. Assisted 
by General Phillip Schuyler, after much hardship and suffering 
and a perilous trip through Lake George he reached camp with 
the cannon and stores January 24, 1776. On the shores of Lake 
George, Col. Knox met the gallant but unfortunate Andre,' 
whose later connection with Arnold thus links him to the history 
of "Ti." (Life of Gen. Henry Knox, page 23). A most inter- 
esting account of the removal of the cannon will also be found in 
the Sexagenary, pp. 26 to 37. J. A. H.] 



ANECDOTES OF ETHAN ALLEN. 

Collected by R. 0. Bascom. 

The following anecdotes are related of Ethan Allen as illus- 
trating his character and originality: 

In 1770 he was the Agent of the Hampshire Grants to repre- 
sent them in certain litigations at Albany, concerning the title of 
lands in Vermont, All of the evidence offered by Allen showing 
title to the lands from the Governor of New Hampshire was 
simply excluded, and the verdict, of course, was against the set- 
tlers. After the court had adjourned, some gentlemen interested 
on behalf of the New York titles, called on Allen at the hotel, and 
urged him to make the best terms he could with his adversaries. 
Allen replied that "The Gods in the valleys are not the Gods of 
the hills. ' ' When urged to explain what he meant by this, he said, 
"Come to Holy hill at Bennington and I will show you." 



HO NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

As is well known, Allen was captured and taken as a prisoner 
to England. During his captivity he was subjected to great in- 
dignities; he held Sir William Howe and James Loring, a Tory, 
the Commissioner having charge of the prisoners, as responsible 
for his ill treatment, and said of them that they were "The most 
mean spirited, cowardly, deceitful animals in God's creation be- 
low, and legions of infernal devils with all of their tremendous 
horrors are impatiently ready to receive Howe and him with all 
their detestable accomplices into the most exquisite agonies of holy 
tire." 

Having been offered a position in the military service of Great 
Britain, together with a large grant of land, if he would desert the 
cause of the Colonists, Allen said, ' ' I view the offer of land to be 
similar to that which the devil offered our Saviour to give him all 
kingdoms of the world; to fall down and worship him when the 
poor devil had not one foot of land on earth." In a letter to a 
friend he said, "I am as resolutely determined to defend the in- 
dependence of Vermont as Congress is that of the United States, 
and rather than fail, will retire with my hardy Green Mountain 
Boys into the desolate caverns of the mountains and wage war 
with human nature at large." 

When Allen was on his way to the Continental Congress short- 
ly after the capture of Ticonderoga, he attended a church service 
at Bennington where the Rev. [Jedediah] Dewey preached a 
sermon on the "Capture of Ticonderoga," and in his prayer, Mr. 
Dewey poured forth his thanks to the Lord for having delivered 
the possession of this fortress into the hands of the people. In 
the midst of the prayer, Allen cried out, "Parson Dewey!" the 
interruption was not heeded, when Allen again exclaimed, "Par- 
son Dewey ! ' ' still the clergyman continues his prayer when Allen, 
springing to his feet, called out in a voice of thunder, "Parson 
Dewey!" the clergyman stopped and opened his eyes with aston- 
ishment, when Allen said, "Parson Dewey, please make mention 
of my being there." [While a student at Williams, the editor 
remembers the late Prof. A. L. Perry, professor of History,relating 
this incident, with the addendum that Parson Dewey was not 
afraid of man, beast nor devil, and called out to Col. Allen, "Sit 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 29 

down Ethan Allen, when I want you I will call upon you," and 
Allen sat down. J. A. H.] 

In 1782 there were some defections in the town of Guilford, 
and the Committee of Safety sent Allen there to subdue the re- 
bellion. He walked into the town on foot and issued his famous 
proclamation in which he said that "Unless the inhabitants peace- 
fully submitted to the authority of the State of Vermont, he would 
lay the town of Guilford as desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah, by 
God ! ' ' The proclamation was all that was necessary to insure 
the establishment of order in that community. 

On one occasion having sued upon a note, he employed a law- 
yer in order to gain time, and his attorney, with that end in view, 
denied the genuineness of Allen's signature to the note. Allen 
arose in court and said, "Sir, I did not employ you to come here 
and lie ! The note is a good one and the signature is mine ; all I 
want is to the court to grant me sufficient time to pay it." [A 
compromise was speedily effected] . 

Being engaged in a theological controversy in relation to the 
theory of the Universalists, someone said, "That religion will suit 
you will it not, General?" The man who made this remark was 
a Tory, and Allen retorted, "No, no, there must be a hell in the 
other world for the punishment of Tories. ' ' 

The inscription upon Allen's tomb-stone at Winoskie is as 
follows : 

The 

Corporeal Part 

of 

Gen. Ethan Allen 

rests beneath this stone. 

He died 

the 12th day of February, 1789, 

aged 50 years. 

His spirit tried the mercies of his God, 

In whom he believed and strongly trusted. 



oV NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

ADDITIONS AND NOTES TO " R. O. BASCOM'S 
ETHAN ALLEN'S MEN." 

By James Austin Holden. 

In looking up other historical data this winter, the writer had 
been impressed with the number of soldiers engaged in the Revo- 
lutionary War, who had settled in this northern section of the 
State and its close neighbor Vermont, which after all is a child of 
the flesh and bone of the bone of this big commonwealth. 

In going through nearly five hundred volumes, pamphlets, 
magazines and newspapers, I naturally ran upon a number of 
names intimately connected with the Capture of Ticonderoga by 
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys in 1775. Those "out- 
laws" whose resistless spirit had not so long before carved the com- 
ing colony of Vermont bodily from the northern part of New York. 
Starting to mark these names as they appeared first out of curi- 
osity, and continuing as a labor of respect, I found there were but 
a few to add to the list made by our revered late Secretary, Rob- 
ert 0. Bascom.* 

The work he did on this record was a monumental one, as the 
writer can testify from following in his footsteps, even though 
along another line of historical endeavor. So thoroughly has he 
done his task, and so painstaking have been his researches, that 
there are but a sparse handful of names to be added, but still, 
there are a few, which are herewith submitted, to still further per- 
fect the imperfect records of the "Great Expedition" of that day. 
From the historian's standpoint, it seems a pity that great egotist 
and erratic genius though he was, Ethan Allen could not have in- 
serted in his memoirs, in place of so much uninteresting and bom- 
bastic stuff, the names of the noble eighty-three who so bravely 
volunteered to go into the fort with him, and thus have preserved 
forever in the pages of history, the real heroes of that eventful May 
10th, 1775. 



* For valuable and rare books and pamphlets loaned and for other in- 
formation and aid extended, the writer desires to thank the New York 
State Library; Williams College Library; Crandoll Free Library, of Glens 
Falls; A. S. Clark, Peekskill; W. J. Wilder and George W. Yates (a for- 
mer Bennington resident), of Saratoga Springs; A. C. Bates, Librarian of 
the Connecticut Historical Society of Hartford, Conn.; E. M. Goddard, 
Librarian of the Vermont Historical Society, of Montpelier, Vt. J. A. H. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 ^'>1 

It is further to be regretted that the faithful and invaluable 
local historians of the New Hampshire grants and Northern New 
York of half a century and more ago, who have preserved in im- 
perishable print deeds and events of the younger years of our re- 
public, did not do their work a little more carefully. For in- 
stance, in a great many cases the record will read, "John Smith, 
a veteran of the Revolution, moved here such a date." Would 
the writer had taken a little more time to state in what company, 
regiment and year "John Smith" served. 

Among the names which follow are a few which may have no 
direct connection with the capture of Ticonderoga, But as it was 
the proud boast and name of honor of many in the Great Rebellion 
of 1861-65, that they fought "mit Sigel", so those who in any 
capacity or at any time were with Allen on this expedition, are en- 
titled to honorable mention, as participants in an event that 
changed the destinies of a nation. 

There are few historical events about which so many contra- 
dictory reports have been written, as the so-called Capture of Ti- 
conderoga by Ethan Allen. The historian who would sift out the 
grain of truth from the heaped-up chaff of inconsistency, perver- 
sion of the records, personal bias of the participants and one-sided 
statements of the historians of the affected colonies and later 
states, has no enviable task. Before me lies Ethan Allen's narra- 
tive as published in the Pennsylvania Packet or General Ad- 
vertiser, beginning with November 9, 1779, written at Bennnig- 
ton four years after the event. He claims he "arrived at 
the lake opposite to Ticonderoga, on the evening of the ninth 
day of May, 1775, with two hundred and thirty valiant Green 
Mountain Boys." In most histories this number is stated as "two 
hundred and seventy, all of whom but forty (or forty-six) are 
Green Mountain Boys." A comparison of these figures with the 
letters written to the legislative assemblies of New York, Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut, which appear in Vol. II (Fourth Series) 
of Force's Archives, shows a remarkable discrepancy in numbers. 
For instance:— Allen to the Massachusetts Congress, Mav 



32 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

11th, says, "The soldiery was composed of about one hun- 
dred Green Mountain Boys, and near fifty veteran sol- 
diers from the Province of Massachusetts Bay," (page 
556.) Arnold says, same date, "I found one hundred 
and fifty men collected at the instance of some gentlemen 
from Connecticut headed by Colonel Ethan Allen," (page 557.) 
Under date of May 10th, Easton, Bull, Mott and Phelps write the 
Massachusetts Congress "that the Committee had the assistance of 
seventy men from the Massachusetts and one hundred and forty 
from the New Hampshire grants." On May 11th, Allen notified the 
Albany Committee, "that pursuant to his directions from sundry 
leading gentlemen from Massachusetts and Connecticut, I took the 
fortress of Ticonderoga, with about one hundred and thirty Green 
Mountain Boys." Colonel Easton with about forty-seven valiant 
soldiers, distinguished themselves in the action (page 606.) On 
May 20th, John Brown informed the General Congress at Phila- 
delphia that a company of about fifty men from Connecticut and 
the western part of Massachusetts, and joined by upwards of one 
hundred from Bennington, in New York Government * * * in- 
vested the fort," (page 623). On May 18th, Colonel Easton be- 
fore the Provincial Congress at Watertown, Mass., informs them 
that "last Tuesday sen-night about two hundred and forty men 
from Connecticut and this Province under Colonels Allen and 
Easton arrived at the lake near Ticonderoga; eighty of them 
crossed it, and came to the fort about the break of day," (page 
624). On May 11th, Edward Mott wrote to the Massachusetts Con- 
gress a description of the attack on Ticonderoga. He states "that 
we collected to the number of sixteen men in Connecticut" * * * 
I set out with him to the Town of Jericho where Colonel Easton 
raised between forty and fifty men and proceeded to Bennington. 
* * * It was concluded and voted * * * that a party of 
thirty men under command of Captain Herrick should on the next 
day in the afternoon proceed to Skenesborough * * * and in 
the night [we] proceed up the lake to Shoreham * * * with the re- 
mainder of our men which was about one hundred and forty," 
(page 558). Under date of May 24th, to the General Assembly of 
Connecticut, Capt. William Delaplace, English commander of the 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 o3 

fort when captured, petitioned the Assembly and stated that on the 
morning of the 10th of May, the garrison of the Fortress of Ticon- 
deroga and Province of New York was surprised by a party of 
armed men under the command of one Ethan Allen consisting of 
one hundred and fifty," (page 698). 

There are a number of other citations but the foregoing should 
suffice to show, that excluding the thirty men sent to Skenesbor- 
ough, the entire number under command of Allen, Warner and 
Easton did not exceed one hundred and fifty, or out of a total 
number of one hundred and eighty, which includes Colonel Arnold 
and his attendant, only about one hundred and twenty-five could 
be classed by any possibility as "Green Mountain Boys." For 
Easton and Mott "raised twenty- four in Jericho and fifteen in 
Williamstown" (Journal of Edward Mott— Collections Connecti- 
cut Historical Society, Vol. I, 1868). This thirty-nine added to 
the sixteen Connecticut men who participated, and Messrs. Easton 
and Brown would make fifty-seven, leaving one hundred and 
twenty-three to be accounted for from the Hampshire Grants. It 
was only a few days however before the fifty men raised by Col- 
onel Arnold in Massachusetts appeared, and from that time until 
Col. Hinman took charge with his Connecticut regiment, men 
were constantly coming and going. It is therefore very plain that 
the number of men who served on this expedition, at its inception, 
has been greatly exaggerated by later historians, misled by Allen's 
exceedingly one-sided narrative. 



THE ADDITIONAL LIST. 

Remember Baker, the gallant young soldier of Arlington, Vt., 
who gave his life for his country at St. Johns a few months later, 
and who was one of the captains of the Green Mountain Boys, had 
been instructed to co-operate from his position at Otter Creek. 
This he did by intercepting two despatch boats sent from Crown 
Point with intelligence of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. Thus 
preventing the British authorities from getting premature infor- 
mation. Warner's reduction of Crown Point, Herrick's Capture 
of Skenesborough, Arnold's taking of the sloop, and Baker's in- 



34 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

terception of the messengers, all added to the success of the enter- 
prise. And entitled them to a place on the roll of distinction for 
meritorious service on this occasion. ("Watson's History Essex 
County, Chap. IX, page 136, etc). 

Chapman.— Zadock Thompson says in his History of Vermont, 
(Edition 1842, part 2, page 33), that Douglass on his way to 
Bridport for boats, stopped to see a Mr. Chapman to enlist him 
in the enterprise. It is possible Chapman joined the party, as he 
was bound to do by the rules of the Green Mountain Boys. It 
was the boat belonging to Major Skene, acquired by this visit, that 
allowed Allen to consummate his capture of the Fort, so Chap- 
man deserves mention as a cause, even if we cannot prove he was 
present. In Chittenden's Address, he says Capt. Douglass stopped 
at the home of Mr. Stone in Bridport to get Chapman's assistance. 
James AVilcox and Joseph Tyler who were in bed, dressed and 
armed with their guns and a jug of "New England" (all potent 
weapons at close range) took the boat in question. (Capture of 
Ticonderoga, Hon. L. E. Chittenden, pp. 39-40). 

Zebna Day of Wilton, Saratoga County, N. Y., is buried at 
Emerson's Corners in that County. On his tombstone appears the 
following: "Zebna Day, whose name in early life was enrolled 
among the Green Mountain Boys, died April 7, 1844, aged 87." 
(History of Saratoga County, N. Y. By Nathaniel B. Sylvester, 
1878, page 469). There is only a slight probability this soldier 
was present. 

Preston Denton, born May, 1755, came to Saratoga from 
Dutchess County early in May, 1775 to join an independent com- 
pany of militia in the town of Stillwater, they being the first 
troops that went from the frontier to New York to fight the enemy 
at the north. Later he was with a company under Col. Ethan 
Allen when they were captured by the British and sent to England. 
(History of Saratoga County, N. Y. The Saratogian Edition 
1890, Appendix, page 27). 

Zadock Everest, a brother of Benjamin Everest (see Bas- 
com's list), accredited in the Vermont Historical Magazine to Ad- 
dison, was one of the Green Mountain Boys at the skirmish with 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 35 

New York authorities at Vergennes in 1773. (Vermont Magazine, 
page 11). He was very likely on this trip to Ticonderoga also, 
as we find his name attached to the so-called Benedict Arnold's 
Declaration which, dated June 15th, 1775, antedated the one at 
Philadelphia by more than a year. It is signed by 31 persons, many 
of whose name-sakes still occupy the Champlain Valley. In the 
list is William Gilliland the pioneer of the Valley. (Mag. of 
American History, Barnes & Co., Feb., 1882, page 130). 

Asa Eddy is coupled with Elias Herrick of Bascom's list, in 
Capt, Mott's Account of his Expenses rendered to Colony of Con- 
necticut May 1, 1775. "To cash furnished Elias Herrick for his 
and Asa Eddy's expenses, 1 pound 4 shillings." (Collections 
Conn. Hist. Society, vol. I, page 173). 

Enos Flanders, Sheffield, was one of the men present at the 
taking of Ticonderoga. (Proceedings Vermont Historical Society, 
1903-04, pp. 97-98). 

William Gilliland, of Willsborough, N. Y., the pioneer of the 
Champlain Valley, according to a tradition in his family, had a 
prominent part in this momentous enterprise. (Watson's Pioneers 
Champlain Valley, pp. 47-48). He claims to have been the 
originator of the expedition against Ticonderoga. (Id. 174-175). 

James Jones, afterward major, of the Town of Berlin, N. Y., 
"was at Ticonderoga. Col. Ethan Allen, Commander, and one 
of the garrison after Allen left. (This was in 1775)." He died 
in his 50th year, and was buried at North Stephentown, N. Y., in 
1803. (History Rensselaer Co., N. Y., by N. B. Sylvester, 1880, 
page 509). 

Samuel Laughton of Dummerston, was with Allen according to 
an article by Walter H. Crockett, published in the Proceedings of 
the Vermont Historical Society for 1903-04 (pp. 97-98). A 
letter received from E. M. Goddard, Librarian of the Vermont 
Historical Society, under date of March 23rd, this year, states that 
Mr. Crockett, at the time he prepared the list in question, was sat- 
isfied that the men named were part of Allen's band. 

Eliphalet Loud of Weymouth, Mass., one of the most im- 
portant men of his day in his town, was a soldier on the occasion 



rfb NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

of the taking of Ticonderoga. ("Nash" in Magazine of Ameri- 
can History, Mrs. Lamb, March, 1886, page 311). 

Judah Moffet, from Brimfield, Mass., who married Nancy- 
Hancock, niece of Gov. John Hancock, "was with the detachment 
of soldiers under Ethan Allen who surprised Ticonderoga in 1775." 
He served in the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 and at Siege of York- 
town in 1781. He died in 1852, aged 92 years, at his home in the 
shadow of the mountains near Rupert, Vt. (History Pawlet, Vt., 
by Hiel Hollister, page 216). 

Nathaniel Parker came from Connecticut. He was in the 
Revolutionary Army, and was with Ethan Allen at the Capture 
of Ticonderoga. Settled in Middle Granville, Washington County, 
N. Y., on the Poultney road during the Revolution (about 1777?). 
He was in attack on Quebec under Montgomery. (History Wash- 
ington County, N. Y., by Crisfield Johnson, 1878, page 198-). 

James Rogers of Hebron, N. Y., was one of the party which 
captured Skenesborough under Capt. Herrick, in 1775. This was 
the time when, as related in legendary history, the soldiers found 
the body of Mrs. Skene, which had been preserved for many years, 
in order to keep alive a legal bequest made to her from which her 
husband derived an income, so long as she was "above ground." 
Local tradition adds that the coffin was lead and that the soldiers 
buried the body in a suitable wooden casket and used the old one 
for bullets. (Crisfield Johnson's Washington County, page 399). 

James Sargeant was born at sea in 1751. His early life was 
spent at Williamstown, Mass. Married, 1770, Ann Horton of 
Londonderry, Vt. "Went with Allen to 'Ti' and witnessed the 
capture of that Fortress in 1775." Was stationed at Fort Edward, 
N. Y., during the Revolutionary War; shared in the affairs on the 
North River. Was one of a number detached to act as a guard 
for Andre on his way to execution. Had five sons, one of whom, 
James, Jr., was born in "Ti," May 20, 1809. In 1819 Sargeant 
located in Pittsford, Vt., living there off and on till 1869, when he 
died. (History Pittsford, Vt. By A. M. Caverly, pp. 351-352- 
409). The year of death given by Mr. Caverly is obviously a mis- 
take. It must have been 1829 or '39, but not 1869. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 37 

Colonel Gideon Warren, Veteran of the Revolutionary War, 
of Hampton, Washington County, N. Y., was at Ticonderoga with 
Ethan Allen. He received a wound in his elbow probably at the 
futile attack on St. Johns, which thereafter bothered him some- 
what during his life. He probably enlisted from Williamstown, 
Mass., as he removed thence to Hampton with his family, about 
the time of the Revolution. Caleb, his first son, was also a sol- 
dier in the Revolution. He married Rachael Webster, and they 
had fourteen children, all of whom grew up. One of them was 
named Ethan, after Ethan Allen. Captain Warren was one of 
the original Captains of the Green Mountain Boys (Moore's 
Memoirs of Ethan Allen, page 17). He settled in the south part 
of the town, where he built a comfortable house on his 500 acres, 
a part of which is now included in Hampton's Corners. (Hermit 
of Mt. Ida, in Troy Northern Budget about 1885. See also Prof. 
Perry's Origins in Williamstown, page 615, for more details about 
Gideon Warren). 

Ashbel Welles (whose team carried the baggage, etc., of the 
party from Hartford), is included in list of names in note to Jour- 
nal of Edward Mott. (Collections Conn. Hist. Society, Vol I, 
page 167). 

Captain Asaph AVhite, formerly of Charlemont, Mass., the 
grandfather of Joseph White, who for many years was Treasurer 
of AYilliams College (and who was accustomed to tell the story), 
was at Ticonderoga as a soldier and saw some of the unseemly 
disputes between Arnold and Allen. Captain White used to tell 
his grandson in his boyhood that Allen was no match for Arnold 
in these contests. "He hadn't got no grit, Jo." (A. L. Perry's 
Williamstown, and Williams College, 1899, page 28). This is 
the first criticism of Allen 's valor that I have ever seen. It might 
well be true however, that Arnold made it unpleasant even for 
the redoubtable Allen, for, no matter how men a little later re- 
garded Arnold the traitor, there never was any doubt or asper- 
sion cast upon his reputation for bravery as a soldier. Through 
the courtesy of J. A. Lowe of the Williams College Library, we 
have the following information: 



38 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

"Col. Jonathan White held commission of Major and Lt. Col. 
in Ruggles' regiment of the "New Levies" and was at the Battle 
of Lake George, Sept. 8, 1755. (This was the great grandfather of 
Joseph White). "Col. Jonathan White's Lake George sword 
passed to his son, Col. Asaph White, and then to his son, Capt. 
Joseph White, and finally to his son, Mr. Joseph White, who hav- 
ing no children presented it to the college. ' ' Guilielmensien, Class 
1892, p. 13." This sword is now in the College Library. 

Col. Arnold's attendant whose name, so far has never been 
discovered, must have been present at the taking of the Fort. 
Chittenden (page 39), in speaking of Arnold, makes this sarcastic 
allusion: "He is 'attended' by a servant — of the genus valet de 
chambre— the only one in that camp, the first recorded appearance 
of the species in Vermont." 

On June 10th a petition was prepared for the Continental Con- 
gress then in session at Philadelphia. It was dated from Crown 
Point, and signed by the following names : Colonel Ethan Allen ; 
Major Samuel Elmore of the Connecticut Farms; Colonel James 
Easton of Pittsfield; Captain Seth Warner; Captain Hezekiah 
Balding; Captain Ebenezer Marvin; Captain Remember Baker; 
Captain George White ; Captain James Noble, commandant at this 
place; Captain Amos Chappie; Captain Wait Hopkins; Captain 
Joseph McCracken; Captain John Grand Captain Barnabas Bar- 
num; Captain James Wills; Lieutenant Ira Allen; Lieutenant 
Oliver Parmerly; Isaac Hitchcock, commissary; Stephen Bay, 
clerk of Major Elmore. How many of these men were in the origi- 
nal expedition aside from those we have is not known. The men 
we already know about are the two Aliens, Easton, Warner and 
Baker. 

The names of Wait Hopkins and John Grant (or Grand) as 
Captains, and Barnabas Barnum and Ira Allen as First Lieu- 
tenants; John or Johan (James?) Noble as Second Lieutenant are 
found in the list of officers selected at the Vermont Assembly or 
convention held July 27th. (History Vermont, Hall, pp. 211-212. 
See also Calendar of N. Y. Hist. Mss. Vol. I, pp. 109-110). 

A Hezekiah Baldwin (Balding?) was appointed a captain by 
N. Y. Provincial Congress June 29, 1775, from Albany County. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 39 

On the same date Joseph McCracken, Charlotte County, was war- 
ranted as a captain. (N. Y. Hist., Mss. Vol. I, pp. 105-106. 
Vol. II, pp. 33-37). The name Balding was also common to 
Cumberland County, now part of Vermont (New York in The 
Revolution, page 134. Archives N. Y., Vol. I, page 276). 

Ebenezer Marvin appears as chairman of the Saratoga, N. Y., 
Committee in 1776. (N. Y. Hist. Mss. Vol. I, page 236). The 
writer has been informed he was in command of an independent 
company raised in Stillwater about the time of the Allen expedi- 
tion, but has not yet verified the claim. 

George White appears as captain under Lieut. Colonel Robert 
Cochran, together with Capt. Hezekiah Baldwin in the 2nd Regi- 
ment of the line. (New York in the Revolution, page 29). Rob- 
ert Cochran was one of Allen's right hand men. 

The names of Chappie, Wills, Parmerly, Hitchcock and Bay 
we have not had an opportunity to trace out. The hunt after these 
names has been a most interesting one but time and opportunity 
are lacking to follow it further. 



SOME ADDITIONAL ANECDOTES AND DATA 
CONCERNING ETHAN ALLEN. 

Edited by James Austin Holden. 

While many anecdotes have been related about Ethan Allen 
the majority of which are more or less fictitious, and a number of 
which may be found either in Hugh Moore's Memoir of Col. Ethan 
Allen published in 1834, or in Henry W. DePuy 's ' ' Mountain Hero 
and His Associates," or "Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain 
Boys" as it is variously known, the following preserved in an old 
scrap book of the late A. W. Holden, and published some time in 
the 50 's, are somewhat different from those usually given as char- 
acteristic of the man. 

While discussing religion with one of the village pastors to 
whom he was extending hospitality at his supper table, the min- 
ister enquired how it happened that Allen had never joined any 



40 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

church. Allen replied, ''He had often thought about the matter, 
and after mentally deciding one day to take that step, he had a 
dream that same night which had caused him to give it up." 

"And," exclaimed the minister, "what did you dream?" 

"Well, I thought I was standing at the entrance of Paradise, 
and saw a man go up and knock. ' ' 

"Who's that?" asked a voice from within. 

"A friend wishing admittance," was the reply. 

The door was opened and the keeper stepped out. 

"Well, sir, what denomination did you belong to down yon- 
der?" 

"I was an Episcopalian, replied the candidate for admission." 

' ' Go in, then, and take a seat near the door on the east side. ' ' 

Just then another stepped up ; he was a Presbyterian, and 
the guardian directed him to a seat. A large number were ad- 
mitted and received directions where to seat themselves. . 

I then stepped to the entrance. 

"Well, sir, who are you?" asked the guardian. 

"lam neither High Churchman, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Cal- 
vinist, Catholic or Jew, but I am the same Ethan Allen that you 
have probably heard from down below." 

"What, the same man who took Ticonderoga ? " 

"The same," I replied. 

"All right, Ethan," said he, "just step in and SIT DOWN 
WHERE YOU PLEASE." 

An instance is related of Ethan Allen, that is said to have oc- 
curred while he was on his way to England. While closely con- 
fined to his room, he discovered one day that a pin or wire that fas- 
tened one of his hand-cuffs was broken. Extricating the pieces 
with his teeth, he was enabled so to loosen the bolt that it also was 
soon withdrawn, and one hand was set at liberty ; he then pro- 
ceeded to release the other, and was successful. This having been 
accomplished, he was not long in liberating his feet. Fearing, 
however, lest the Captain should discover his situation, and con- 
tract the "area of his freedom," he carefully replaced the bolts 
and pins before the arrival of the keeper. In a short time it be- 
came a fine recreation for the Colonel to take off and put on his 
chains at pleasure. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 41 

One clay the Captain wishing to afford some merriment to the 
crew, commanded Allen to be brought upon deck. Hoping to 
frighten him, the Captain said: 

"There is a possibility that the ship will founder— if so, what 
will become of us, especially you, Mr. Allen, a rebel against the 

"Why", said Allen, "that would be very much like our din- 
ner hour." 

"How so 1 ?" said the Captain, not reflecting that Allen was 
only allowed to come on deck while he himself went down into his 
cabin to dine. 

"Well, you see", answered Allen, "I'd be on my way up just 
as you would be going clown." 

The Captain was not at all pleased with this reply, and com- 
menced a regular tirade of abuse against the American people. 
"In a short time, ' ' said the Captain, ' ' all the rebels will be in the 
same situation as yourself." 

This was too much for Allen, and he determined to apply his 
newly acquired dexterity in unloosening his fetters to some pur- 
pose. Quickly raising his hands to his mouth, he apparently 
snapped asunder the pins and bolts, and hurling his hand-cuffs 
and fetters overboard — seized the astonished Captain by the collar, 
and threw him headlong upon the deck, then turning to the af- 
frightened crew, he exclaimed in a voice of thunder: "If I am 
insulted again during the voyage, I'll sink the ship and swim 
ashore." This exploit so terrified the Captain and crew, that 
Allen was allowed to do pretty much as he pleased the remainder 
of the voyage. 

In Moore's Memoirs (page 113), Allen relates this incident 
in a little different form: "To give an instance, upon being in- 
sulted, in a fit of anger, I twisted off a nail with my teeth, which 
I took to be a ten-penny nail; it went through the mortice of the 
bar of my hand-cuff, and at the same time, I swaggered over those 
who abused me; particularly a Doctor Dace, who told me that I 
was outlawed by New York, and deserved death for several years 
past ; was at last fully ripened for the halter, and in a fair way to 
obtain it. When I challenged him, he excused himself in conse- 



42 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

quence, as he said, of my being a criminal; but I flung such a 
flood of language at him, that it shocked him and the spectators, 
for my anger was very great. I heard one say, "damn him, can 
he eat iron ? ' ' After that a small padlock was fixed to the hand- 
cuff, instead of the nail ; and as they were mean spirited in their 
treatment of me, so it appeared to me, that they were equally 
timorous and cowardly." 

The "Romance of the Revolution" (page 330), speaking of 
Allen after he was taken prisoner at Montreal, says : 

"At the expiration of six weeks, he was removed to a vessel 
off Quebec, where he received kind and courteous treatment. Here 
he remained until his removal on board the vessel which was to 
carry him to England. Here all of the prisoners, thirty-four, 
were thrust into a small apartment, each heavily ironed. They 
were compelled during the whole voyage to remain in their con- 
finement, and were subjected to every indignity that cruelty could 
invent. ' ' 

When first ordered to enter into their filthy apartment, Allen 
refused, and endeavored to argue their brutal keeper out of his in- 
human purpose, but all in vain. The reply to his appeal was in- 
sults of the grossest kind, and an officer of the vessel insulting him 
by spitting in his face, hand-cuffed as he was, the intrepid Ameri- 
can sprang upon the dastard, and knocked him at length upon 
the floor. The fellow hastily scrambled out of the reach of Allen, 
and placed himself under the protection of the guard. Allen 
challenged him to fight, offering to meet him even with irons upon 
his wrists, but the Briton, trembling with fear, contented himself 
with the protection afforded him by British bayonets, and did not 
venture to oppose the intrepid Americans. The prisoners were 
now forced into their den at the point of the bayonet. The suf- 
ferings of the captives during the voyage were intense. Their 
privations soon brought on diarrhoea and fevers. But notwith- 
standing their sickness, they received no attention from their 
jailors, and even those who were crazed with raging thirst, were 
denied the simple boon of fresh water." 

Most readers of history, especially in New York and Vermont, 
are familiar with the story of Allen while living at Tinmouth, Vt. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 43 

"A lady came to the village physician to have a tooth extracted, 
while Allen was present. Finally becoming disgusted, with her 
lack of courage, Allen said to the physician, "take out one of my 
teeth." But— "Your teeth are all sound," said the physician.after 
an examination. "Never mind, do as I direct you," said Allen, 
and there was suddenly a gap in his array of ivory. "Now take 
courage, madam, from the example I have given you," said Allen 
to the trembling lady. Pride overcame her fears, and she was 
soon relieved of her apprehensions of pain, and of her tooth also. 
(DePuy, page 393). 

Levi Allen, brother of Ethan, became a Tory, although he af- 
terwards recanted. He sent a challenge to his brother Ethan, on 
account of some alleged wrong done him by Colonel Allen, who re- 
fused to fight him on the ground that it would "be disgraceful to 
fight a Tory." 

Colonel Allen's first wife was from Connecticut, where she 
died. "His courtship of his second wife was characteristic. Dur- 
ing a session of the court at Westminister, Allen appeared with a 
magnificent pair of black horses and a black driver. Chief Jus- 
tice Robinson and Stephen R. Bradley, an eminent lawyer, were 
there, and as their breakfast was on the table, they asked Allen to 
join them. He replied that he had breakfasted, and while they 
were at the table, he would go in and see Mrs. Buchanan, a hand- 
some widow who was at the house. He entered the sitting-room, 
and at once said to Mrs. Buchanan, ' ' Well, Fanny, if we are to be 
married let us be about it." "Very well," she promptly replied, 
"give me time to fix up." In a few minutes she was ready, and 
Judge Robinson was at once called upon by them to perform the 
customary ceremony. Said Allen, "Judge, Mrs. Buchanan and I 
have concluded to be married; I don't care much about the cere- 
mony, and as near as I can find out, Fanny cares as little for it as 
I do; but as a decent respect for the customs of society require it 
of us, we are willing to have the ceremony performed. ' ' The gen- 
tlemen present were much surprised, and Judge Robinson replied, 
"General Allen, this is an important matter; have you thought 
seriously of it?" "Yes, Yes," exclaimed Allen, looking at Mrs. 
Buchanan, "but it don't require much thought." Judge Robinson 



44 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

then rose from his seat and said, "Join your hands together. 
Ethan Allen, you take this woman to be your lawful and wedded 
wife ; you promise to love and protect her according to the law of 

God and "Stop, stop, Judge. The law of God," said Allen, 

looking forth upon the fields, "all nature is full of it. Yes, go on. 
My team is at the door." As soon as the ceremony was ended, 
General Allen and his bride entered his carriage and drove off." 
(DePuy, page 426). 

A somewhat recent pamphleteer in recounting the following in- 
cident in Allen's life has drawn certain conclusions. To those of 
the Illuminati, who have seen the true and only light in the East, 
Allen's remark will have a deeper, far more significant meaning. 
This and his alleged allusions to the Great Jehovah, would show 
that sometime and somewhere Ethan Allen had trodden the same 
paths and seen the same light as some of his less prominent breth- 
ren. This writer, Robert Dewey Benedict, of Brooklyn, 'says: 

' ' When he was taken prisoner at Montreal he was brought be- 
fore the English General Prescott. Allen's narrative tells us: 
"He asked me my name, which I told him. He then asked me 
whether I was that Col. Allen who took Ticonderoga. I told him 
I was the very man. Then he shook his cane over my head, calling 
me many hard names, among which he frequently used the word 
rebel. * * * * I told him he would do well not to cane me, for I 
was not accustomed to it, and shook my fist at him, telling him that 
was the BEETLE OP MORTALITY for him if he offered to 
strike." The Englishman probably had seen enough logs split 
with a beetle and wedges, to recognize the appropriateness of the 
figure of a beetle as descriptive of Allen's heavy fist; and when 
it was described as a "beetle of mortality" he recognized that it 
was a weapon which he would do well not to meet." (Extract 
from Benedict's Ethan Allen's Use of Language, in William Ab- 
batt's Magazine of History for March, 1905). 

Ethan Allen had peculiar religious ideas. In Benedict's ar- 
ticle referred to above, he says on the authority of Lieut. Col. 
Graham, who came to live in Rutland in 1785, ' ' I have often heard 
General Allen affirm that he should live again under the form of 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 45 

a large white horse." As there may he some, even at this late 
day, who would like to know where Allen went or was supposed to 
go by some of his contemporaries to prepare for his transmigra- 
tion, the following epitaph from one of the strictest of his sect in 
those days may be illuminating. 

The Rev. Dr. Ezra. Stiles, then president of Yale College, 
known as "an inveterate chronicler" who kept notes and data 
on all subjects that he thought might be of interest to posterity, 
wrote in his diary under date of Feb. 13th, 1789, "General Ethan 
Allen of Vermont died and went to Hell this day." (Foot Note- 
Ames' Almanack, edited by Sam Briggs, page 343). 

There were six sons born to Joseph Allen of Litchfield, Conn., 
and his wife as follows: General Ethan, Capt. Heman, Major 
Heber, Lieut. Levi, Zimri, and Col. Ira, all of whom were more 
or less connected with the early history of Vermont and the Revo- 
lution. Of all the brothers Ethan and Ira, the oldest and the 
youngest were the most celebrated, and capable. If Ethan Allen 
was the lion of the family, Ira was the fox, carrying his points by 
finesse rather than by brute force 

Thompson in his Memoir of Ira Allen (Vermont Hist. Society, 
1908-1909, pp. 114-119), tells how Ira challenged Ethan for a 
trip through the woods in which Ira was an expert. Much to his 
surprise Ethan not only kept up with him, but by plunging ahead 
through swamp and thicket, swale and clearing, covered more 
ground than Ira, who by his familiarity with the woods was en- 
abled to take short cuts not known to Ethan. Although both were 
played out at the end, "Ethan admitted he could claim no advan- 
tage and desired to call it a draw game," to which Ira gladly 
acquiesced. 

Mr. Thompson goes on to say, ' ' To plunge ahead, obstructions 
or no obstructions, and intent only on his straight-going purpose, 
was Ethan Allen all over; and thus to outgeneral his antagonist 
by this ingenious stratagem, was Ira Allen all over. We never 
heard of any one incident that better illustrated the different char- 
acteristics of the two brothers." 



46 



NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



"Levi Allen was the equal of his brothers in talents, energy 
and bravery, but not in patriotism and judgment. He was eccen- 
tric and unstable— as "the rolling stone that gathers no moss"— 
and he therefore garnered no wealth of honor and renown as did 
they. From the first they seem to have doubted the character of 
Levi, since he was not a member of the great land company, and 
was afterward repudiated as a Tory. Of this an amusing piece of 
evidence is found in doggerel verses which come attributed, not 
without reason, to Levi Allen, as having been written when he was 
smarting under the loss of his property, which he charged to Ira. 
although Ethan entered the complaint. It shows that both Ethan 
and Ira regarded Levi as a great rogue, for which Levi took his 
revenge by counting Ira as the greatest rogue of the three. It is 
as follows: 



ETHAN.- 



IRA. 



LEVI.— 



THE THREE BROTHERS. 

Old Ethan once said over a full bowl of grog. 
Though I believe not in Jesus, I hold to a God ; 
There is also a Devil — you will see him one 

day 
In a whirlwind of fire take Levi away. 
Says Ira to Ethan it plain doth appear 
That you are inclined to banter and jeer; 
I think for myself and I freely declare 
Our Levi 's too stout for the prince of the air ; 
If ever you see them engaged in affray, 
'Tis our Levi who'll take the Devil away. 
Says Levi, your speeches make it perfectly 

clear 
That you both seem inclined to banter and 

jeer; 
Though through all the world my name stands 

enrolled 
For tricks sly and crafty, ingenious and bold, 
There is one consolation which none can deny 
That there's one greater rogue in this world 

than I. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 47 

ETHAN & IRA.— "Who's that?" they both cry with equal sur- 
prise. 
LEVI.— "lis Ira! 'tis Ira! I yield him the prize. 

(Records Council of Safety, Vermont, Vol. I, pp. 112-113. 
Levi's dubious opinion of his family is also to be found in Daw- 
son's Historical Magazine for Feb'y, 1869, pp. 127-128). 



HOW TICONDEROGA WAS CAPTURED. 

The following extracts, give a somewhat different version of the 
Capture of Ticonderoga, from that ordinarily printed in the text 
books. 

' ' The easy capture of this strong fortress at the beginning of 
the Revolutionary War by Colonel Ethan Allen has been one of 
the puzzles of historians, and many have been the attempts to ac- 
count for the total surprise on the part of the officers of the gar- 
rison. The following tradition is one of the many, and may be as 
true as some of those credited by the scholars and writers. 

Eliphalet Loud, Esq., one of the most important men of his 
day in this town, a man of unusual ability and education, was a 
soldier on that occasion, and a verbal tradition current in his fam- 
ily, says that, on the evening before the capture, the English and 
American officers were engaged in a social entertainment, at which 
the American officers, with the attempt in view, plied their English 
associates most plentifully with liquor, while they, knowing the 
necessity for cool heads, poured theirs down their bosoms, and the 
result was, what might be expected, a total surprise. The old 
gentleman always expressed the regret that these American officers 
must have felt at the WASTE of so much good liquor, but the 
success gratified it." NASH. Weymouth, Massachusetts, 12 Feb- 
ruary, 1886. (Extract from Notes of Mrs. Martha J. Lamb's 
Magazine of American History, March, 1886). 

Corroborating the above legend to some extent is a reference 
I discovered in my father's History of Queensbury which gave a 
clue that followed up disclosed the following, from the best En- 
glish history of that period: 



4S 



NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



" Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the former situated at the 
north end of Lake George, and the latter near the southern ex- 
tremity of Lake Champlain, form the gates on that quarter of 
Canada. These posts had already been secured in the following 
manner: A volunteer, of the name of Ethan Allen, assembled 
of his own accord, about fifty men, and proceeded immediately to 
the environs of the first-mentioned fortress, commanded by Cap- 
tain Delaplace of the Twenty-sixth regiment, who had under his 
command about sixty men. Allen, who had often been at Tieon- 
deroga, observed a complete want of discipline in the garrison, and 
that they even carried their supine negligence to the length of 
never shutting the gates. Having disposed his small force in the 
woods, he went to Captain Delaplace, with whom he was well ac- 
quainted, and prevailed on him to lend him twenty men, for the 
pretended purpose of assisting him in transporting goods across 
the lake. These men he contrived to make drunk; and on the ap- 
proach of night, drawing his own people from their ambuscade, he 
advanced to the garrison, of which he immediately made himself 
master. As there was not one person awake, though there was a 
sentry at the gate, they were all taken prisoners. On the com- 
mandant's asking Allen, by what authority he required him to 
surrender the fort, he answered, "I demand it in the name of the 
Great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress." The reduction 
of Crown Point which had neither guard nor garrison, became a 
matter of course. Allen also surprised Skenesborough, belonging 
to Major Skene, who with his son and negroes were taken pris- 
oners. About the same time an American officer, afterwards high- 
ly distinguished, seized the only ship of the royal navy on Lake 
Champlain. Benedict Arnold at the commencement of the dif- 
ference between Great Britain and America was placed at the head 
of a company of volunteers by the inhabitants of Newhaven." 
(Stedman's History of the American War, Vol. I, pp. 131-132, 
London, 1798 ) . With this tradition current among both American 
and English soldiery of that day, there may be some foundation 
of truth for it. The biographers of Ethan Allen, show that like 
nearly every other man of that day, he was a hard drinker, and 
such a method of warfare could easily have appealed to him, or 
some of his command. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 49 

WHAT ETHAN ALLEN REALLY SAID AT 
TICONDEROGA. 

The language said to have been employed by Ethan Allen in 
demanding the surrender of Ticonderoga, has always appeared to 
the writer on a par with that reported to have been used by 
George Washington on cutting down the famous cherry tree. 
However acceptable Ethan Allen's religious views might be today, 
which seems to be a period of fads, follies and freaks, in ecclesias- 
tical notions, in those days he was considered to be an impious 
atheist by the staunch old Puritans of New England. 

Four years after his capture, i. e., in 1779, he published his 
famous narrative from which fully 90 per cent of the accounts of 
the capture of Ticonderoga have been taken, even some of the his- 
torians practically of his own time unfortunately using it as a basis 
for their story of the exploit. 

From an Address entitled ' ' The Frauds of History, ' ' delivered 
by the late A. W. Holden, Feb. 20, 1885, we take the following: 

"In one of the cemeteries of Burlington, Vermont, stands a 
colossal base surmounted by a colossal statute with its right hand 
raised perpendicularly toward heaven as if in the act of invocation. 
It is a statue erected to the memory of Ethan Allen, the patron 
saint of Vermont, and pictures to the eye that famous fiction and 
fraud in our history which is repeated over and over again in our 
school literature, as well as our larger histories, Ethan Allen it 
is well known was a rank infidel and unbeliever, and also one of 
the most profane and blasphemous braggarts and blusterers that 
,then existed. He was the prototype of the cow-boy of the western 
praries. As he had no reverence for Deity, it could be in no 
reverential sense, that he demanded the surrender of the fortress 
of Ticonderoga ' ' in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Conti- 
nental Congress. ' ' And if it was an explosion of sheer blasphemy, 
is it not discreditable to glory in it, and teach our children such 
wanton profanity. But we shall presently see that this was a de- 
liberate after thought. Hind sight is better than foresight. Allen, 
like John Smith, was his own biographer, and made the story to 
suit himself, so that to posterity the crown of glory, borne by angel 
wings, might be seen hovering over his sanctified head. 



50 



NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



The first congress which convened at Carpenter's hall, Phila- 
delphia, on the 5th of September, 1774, was variously designated 
Congress of Commissioners. 
Convention of Commissioners. 
Congress of the Colonies. 
British and American Legislature. 

This convention adopted an address to the people of Canada 
and another to the king, recommending the reassembling of the 
Congress on the 10th of May next, the very day on which Fort 
Ticonderoga was taken. Up to this time no outspoken voice had 
been made for separation from the mother country, no Continen- 
tal Congress was knovm. It was not until the 4th of July, 1776. 
that the declaration of independence was promulgated to the 
world, and it was not until the 7th of June, 1776, that it was 
even proposed by the body which first called itself the Con- 
tinental Congress, and which was represented by delegates from 
the thirteen colonies. 

And thus we find that as the expression or term of Continental 
Congress was wholly unknown at the time of the Capture of Fort 
Ticonderoga, and Arnold who entered the breast works and citadel 
side by side with him says nothing about it ; whatever Allen 's rela- 
tions may have been to the Great Jehovah it is fairly to be in- 
ferred that the interpolation of the Continental Congress was an 
after thought and after work." (See Judge Gibson's letter un- 
der head of Who took Fort George for his adverse opinion of 
Allen). 

Albert Bushnell Hart, in his lately-published series "The 
American Nation," says "If Allen, as he later asserted, demanded 
its surrender ' in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continen- 
tal Congress,' he had no right to do so, for his commission was 
from Connecticut, and Congress when it assembled hesitated to ap- 
prove of Connecticut placing a garrison in Ticonderoga or Crown 
Point, which surrendered at the same time to Seth. Warner, an- 
other famous Vermonter." (Vol. IX, Chap. Ill, pp. 40-41). 

In his paper, "The Capture of Ticonderoga," Allen's great 
advocate, the Hon. L. E. Chittenden, quotes (on Page 46) from 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 51 

Goodhue's History of Shoreham, on the authority of Major Noah 
Callender, that Allen's language was "by the Great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress" in place of "In the name of etc." To 
use the name of Jehovah as an oath instead of an adjuration, 
would seem to be more in Allen's vein of thought than the phrase 
he afterwards employed in his memoirs which were to appear in 
public, and regarding which he would have some pride in making 
the best self-appearance possible. Either out of respect for their 
readers, or because they did not want Allen's character to appear 
any worse than possible, the historiographers of Vermont, of New 
England, even of New York which had no reason then or now to 
love Ethan Allen, with but few exceptions have failed to give Al- 
len's alleged real language (if the paradox may be allowed), which 
must have been current gossip in the early years of the last cen- 
tury in New England and New York. 

On page 124 of Chittenden's address is found Washington 
Irving 's account of the seizure of Ticonderoga, as given in his last, 
almost death bed work, The Life of Washing-ton, published after 
years of preparation in 1855-59. Irving says: "The Commandant 
appeared at his door half dressed ' the frightened face of his 
pretty wife peering over his shoulder.' He gazed at Allen in be- 
wildered astonishment. 'By whose authority do you act?' ex- 
claimed he. 'In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Conti- 
nental Congress,' replied Allen, with a nourish of his sword, and 
an oath we do not care to subjoin." 

Dr. J. A. Spencer, who published a History of the United States 
in 1858, presents this situation in almost the same language as is 
quoted above, giving Allen's supposed exclamation and then goes 
on to say: "Ending the command (we are sorry to say), with an 
oath following it." (Vol. I, page 354). 

Dr. B. J. Lossing adds a little different touch to the drama 
by stating "Delaplace and Allen were old friends" and when the 
astonished captain exclaimed "By what authority do you demand 
the surrender?" Allen raised his sword and thundered out "In 
the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." 
The Captain began to speak when Allen pointed to his men and 
told him to keep still and surrender immediately, which command 



52 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

Delaplace was forced to obey. (Our History by B. J. Lossing, 
1877, Vol. 2, pp. 798-799). 

If Allen really uttered the words which impressed his name, 
and exploit, indelibly on the history of the country, as being one 
of its most notable events, it is very strange that arrogant, con- 
ceited, self-worshipper that his own narrative shows him to have 
been, he did not advise at once the various patriotic conventions 
and assemblies, which were in session at that time, as well as the 
Continental Congress, which began its first session on that same 
memorable May 10th, of the important message he had just de- 
livered in the name of the American people. 

A careful investigation of Peter Force's Archives, Fourth 
Series, Vol. II, fails to show that any mention ever was made by 
Allen, Arnold or Mott in their letters or reports, of any allusion 
to the Deity or the Continental Congress on the taking of the Fort. 

On pages 624-625 is an account of the appearance of Col. 
East on before the Massachusetts Provincial Congress at Water- 
town. It is there stated, on the authority of Col. Easton that the 
"Invading forces gave three huzzahs, which brought out the gar- 
rison;" * * * * the commanding officer soon came forth; Col 
Easton clapped him on the shoulder, told him he was his prisoner, 
and demanded in the name of AMERICA an instant surrender of 
the fort, with all its forces, to the American Forces. ' ' The officer 
was in great confusion and expressed himself to this effect: 
"Damn you, what does all this mean?" In his memorial to the 
Connecticut Assembly however, Capt, Delaplace, who commanded 
the fort at this time, (Force, page 396), makes no mention of the 
language used on that occasion. The same authority says on pages 
1085-1086 that a writer named "Veritas" brands as a. falsehood 
Col. Easton 's statement at the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. 
On page 1087 Capt. Delaplace likewise contradicts Col. Easton, 
saying he "never saw him at the time the fort was surprised, and 
had no conversation with him then nor at any other time." 

It would seem as if had Col. Allen used the words attributed 
to him, they would have mentioned, as has been said before, some- 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 53 

where in the official accounts of the action, rendered immediately 
to the colonies interested.* 

Prof. A. L. Perry in his History of Williamstown and Will- 
iams College, came to the conclusion that Israel Harris, then of 
Williamstown, later of Rutland, and finally of South Hartford, 
Washington County, where he died Nov. 28, 1836, in his 90th year, 
was the author of the article signed "Veritas," referred to above. 
Harris always claimed that he was the third person to enter the 
fort after Allen and Arnold. Prof. Perry states on the authority 
of Prof. James Davie Butler, Wisconsin University, and the Rev. 
Dr. Jonathan Harris Noble, of Schaghticoke, N. Y., grandsons of 
Israel Harris, that "Allen's first exclamation when he reached the 
stairs that led to the apartment of Delaplace, the commandant, 
was, 'Get out of here, you damned old rat!' Later, when Dela- 
place appeared half dressed at his door and demanded the author- 
ity for such an astounding interruption, and Allen had time to 
sober down to realities, then he employed the famous phrase that 
has immortalized his name," (page 35). 

In Larned's History for Ready Reference (page 3226), C. W. 
Elliot's New England History (N. Y., 1857, Scribner Edition), is 
quoted as the best account supposedly of the event. The excerpt is 
as follows: "Allen sought and found the Commander's bed-room, 
and when Captain Delaplace waked, he saw anything but an angel 
of mercy with white wings. Delaplace opened the door, with 
trowsers in hand, and there the great gaunt Ethan stood, with a 
drawn sword in his hand. 'Surrender,' said Ethan. 'To you,' 
asked Delaplace. 'Yes, to me, Ethan Allen.' 'By whose author- 
ity,' asked Delaplace. Ethan was growing impatient, and raising 
his voice and waving his sword, he said, ' In the name of the Great 
Jehovah and the Continental Congress, by God!' ' (V. II, chap. 
18. Compare also his announcement to residents of town of Guil- 
ford, Vt., in Anecdotes). 

Putting together therefore the proverbial two and two we find 
that the language which would have been employed by Ethan Al- 

* Those who desire to pursue this subject further are referred to the 
following pages, Fourth Series, Vol. II, of Force's Archives, which bear 
the most directly on the subjects under discussion: 556, 557, 55S, 559, 500, 
5S4, 5S5, 605, 606, 618, 619, 623, 624, 625, 638, 639, 646, 698, 699, 731, 732, 
733, 734, 735, 10S5, 1086, 10S7. 



54 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

len on this occasion according to the best evidence at hand, and 
that which would be the most appropriate in Allen 's mouth was : 
"Get out of here you damned old rat, and surrender." (Harris). 
"To you," asked Delaplace. "Yes, to me, Ethan Allen." (Elliott). 
To which Delaplace replied, "By what authority do you demand 
the surrender," (Lossing). Or by whose authority do you act, 
(Irving). In response to which Allen made his now memorable 
reply, "By the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, by 
God. ' ' ( Chittenden-Elliott ) . 

Israel Harris, quoted above, claimed that Allen never used the 
expression usually and customarily attributed to him, and it is cer- 
tain that none of his immediate contemporaries gave him credit 
for using it. But giving him the benefit of the doubt, it would 
seem as if it were now time to eliminate this blasphemous sentence 
from the annals of that day, and no longer allow it to stand as one 
of the shibboleths of the nation's early struggles for its liberty. 



SOME HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED LETTERS 

RELATING TO THE TICONDEROGA CAMPAIGN OF 1775. 

Edited by James Austin Holden. 

During the late sixties and early seventies of the nineteenth 
century, there sprang up what might have been termed an epi- 
demic of local historical writing. This state was fortunate in hav- 
ing in the late Joel Munsell of Albany, a publisher so interested in 
history as to accept the manuscripts of local historians and publish 
them at his own risk. In this way were preserved some valuable 
records which would otherwise have been forever lost. 
Stirred by this patriotic example the ever ready and willing writers 
of history in New England were led to publish even more volumin- 
ously than in the forties and fifties their own historical data. It is 
on account of the publication of such local histories that the events 
and affairs of the French and Indian War, and the period of the 
Revolution, have been preserved to us in such minute detail. 

As is to be expected in matters where local pride holds pre- 
eminence, the majority of these histories even when by writers of 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 55 

national renown displayed, to the highest degree, a bias and pre- 
judice which must be allowed for in the summing up the testi- 
mony for or against any disputed historical point. It would 
seem almost impossible to gather any new facts relative to Allen's 
Expedition against Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. Still going over 
some boxes of correspondence and Mss. belonging to the late Austin 
W. II olden of Glens Falls, the writer, this spring, discovered a 
number of interesting letters hitherto unpublished relating to this 
campaign. In those earlier days referred to my father was en- 
gaged in preparing the copy for his History of Queensbury, N. Y., 
(subsequently published by Munsell in 1874), and was in corres- 
pondence and constant communication with the leading New York 
State historians such as William L. Stone, Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, 
B. F. DeCosta, Judge James Gibson and Dr. Asa Fitch of Salem, 
Judge William Hay of Saratoga, Dr. F. B. Hough, as well as Park- 
man, the Rev. Dr. W. I. Kipp, and many other prominent historical 
writers of that time. 

It is with DeCosta, Hay and O'Callaghan however that the 
series of letters to be presented here is more expressly concerned. 
During the period covered by these letters Vermont was receiving 
a great deal of attention, both from her own historians, and these 
of New York, over the Ethan Allen campaign and the incidents 
preceding or connected with it. Histories, monographs, magazine 
and newspaper articles galore were written around and about this 
subject. Hon. L. E. Chittenden, Hiland and Henry Hall upheld 
the honor of Vermont; J. H. Trumbull that of Connecticut; H. W. 
Dawson of the Historical Magazine and Judge William Hay, that 
of New York ; while the Rev. B. F. DeCosta jumped in and out ad- 
ministering impartially, punishment to both sides. As is usual in 
such disputes there was a great deal of unnecessary bitterness, 
acrimony, and prejudice displayed on both sides. 

In presenting the following letters, the writer would state they 
are exact transcripts of the originals the only parts omitted being 
those of a purely personal nature or referring to the History of 
the Town of Queensbury and not germane to the Ticonderoga Ex- 
pedition. The letters are given where possible in chron logical se- 
quence. 



56 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

I. FROM REV. B. F. DE COSTA. 

316 E. 15 Stuyvesant Park, 

New York, Nov. 25, 1867. 
Dr. A. \V. Holden:— 

My Dear Sir:— I have to thank you for your last letter & con- 
tents, also for the paper with Art. IX on Queensbury. ( 1 ) I notice 
that you speak of Arnold as entering Ti with Allen, thus follow- 
ing Bancroft who says that Arnold "emulously kept by his (Al- 
len's) side." I have examined Bancroft's authorities with care & 
find that they do not bear him out. On the contrary I have the 
best of proof that Arnold did not reach the Fort until a clay or two 
afterward, when he again claimed command of the troops and had 
his hat knocked off [for] his pains by Allen. I should like to know 
if you have anything beyond the Conn, historical collections bearing 
on the point. My authority is Beaman who acted as Allen's 
guide, & with his father and mother spent the previous day at 
Ti as DeLaplace's guest, 

You also speak of Forts George & Gage as being seized by 
Parks. I apprehend that there was no garrison at the latter place, 
nor can I find much about it any way. In one old map it is called 
Fort Lyman. Lyman you know was on the ground in 1755 & 6. I 
judge by your account that you think the English garrison left 
Fort George before Park arrived. If so how could the Commander 
have surrendered his sword to Park. I see that you do not give the 
date of the affair. I suppose it is some what legendary though I 
should be glad to know to the contrary. Of late I have become a 
perfect skeptic, and only believe when they give me Chap. & verse. 
I should like to see the authorities in this matter. The British 
officer's name is not given. ( 2 ) The commander there in 1777, 
when Baroness Reidsel came up to lake was Col. Anstruther. 

I should be glad to see other copies of your Queensbury 
chapters which bear on the subject. The American Archives af- 
ford good material which would bear on the Queensbury region. 

Note No. 1. — Pub. in Glens Falls Messenger, Nov. 15, 1867. See also 
"The Capture of Fort George" following this article. 

Note No. 2. — Afterwards discovered to be Capt. John Nordberg. De- 
Costa's Lake George, pp. V-VI, Appendix, N. Y., 1868. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 57 

I have consulted them for Lake George with profit. I am now try- 
ing to get access to the unpublished archives in the Congressional 
Library. I shall delay my historical sketch until the last minute. 
My engravings are nearly finished. I remember Lossing's views, 
and the Harpers have agreed to let me have several. I should 
be glad of any photographs you may have bearing on the subject. 
I should have given up the matter wholly but for the fact that I 
had got started on the engravings before I heard of you through 
Dr. Cromwell. ( 3 ) I will return any photographs sent me in a few 
days, as I only need them to sketch from. I have started the mat- 
ter of lion, membership in Mass. Hist. Genealogical Society. 

Yours very truly, 

B. P. DeCosta. 

P. S. I forgot about the Diocesan Division. ( 4 ) I am afraid 
that you are cut off from the great source of vitality now, or will 
be when the thing is accomplished. But we shall see. 

B. F. D. 

Within the past few days, in fact just as this article was going 
to press, through the kindness of H. McKie Wing of Glens Falls 
the writer came into possession of Volumes I and II of the Collec- 
tions of the Vermont Historical Society, edited by E. P. Walton 
of Montpelier, (the Munsell of Vermont). Volume I, pages 319 to 
500 contains a reprint of the scarce and now unobtainable "History 
of Vermont by Ira Allen." It is very evident that Dr. DeCosta 
and some of the Vermont Historians were unfamiliar with Ira Al- 
len's account of the exploit. Ira Allen says "At length, after con- 
siderable altercation, Colonel Arnold was admitted as second in 
command , and to enter the garrison with Colonel Allen, AT HIS 
LEFT HAND ****** It being a peaceable time, a 
wicket gate was left open wide enough for two men to pass 
a-breast ; when Colonels Allen and Arnold approached, the out sen- 
tinel attempted to fir>, but his gun did not go off; he turned and 



Note No. 3. — Dr. James Cromwell, a prominent physican and citizen of 
Caldwell (Lake George), N. Y., from 1848 to 1875. 

Note No. 4. — The reverend Doctor's prophecy as to the results which 
would follow the separation of the Diocese of Albany from the Diocese of 
New York has fortunately not been fulfilled. The Diocese of Albany un- 
der the beneficent direction of Bishop Doane became one of the leading- 
dioceses of the Episcopal denomination. 



08 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

ran through the wicket gate, and Allen and Arnold rushed in after 
him, and their men followed them." (p. 363). 

Had Dr. DeCosta been in possession of this information from 
not only a contemporary but a brother of the chief actor, he would 
not have fallen into so ridiculous an error, as to state that Bene- 
dict Arnold was not present at this time, even if he did not give 
any credence to the letter from Col. Allen published in Force's 
Archives (Fourth Series,Vol. II, page 606), containing practically 
the same information. 

In 1835 Nathan Beman, at that time living in Malone, pub- 
lished in a local paper, being then in his 79th year, an account of 
his connection with the Expedition. In this Beman claimed that 
Arnold did not accompany the Expedition in any capacity. It 
was not long however before Dr. DeCosta. found it was not safe 
to rely on the garrulous wanderings of an old man in • his dot- 
age. ( 5 ) 

II. FROM DR. DE COSTA. 

Stuyvesant Square, 

316 E. 15th St., 

Dec. 4, '67 
Dr. A. W. Holden : 
My Dear Sir 

I have to thank you for your favor of Nov. 30, with the 
enclosure, which I will retain until Stoddard ( 6 ) sends something 
better, when I will pass it over as directed. My engravings are 
pretty well on, I shall begin typesetting next week. Your list con- 
tains one of "Silver Cascade" at Caldwell, this is news. I never 
heard of it before, though I inquired for such things when at 
the lake. I should like very much to know where it is and to see 
the picture. I do not know that Stoddard has one. Rogers in 
his journal mentions a water fall on the east side of the lake, but 
I infer that it was a winter institution. 



Note No. 5. — Article by Beaman in Franklin County (N. Y.) Gazette, 
copied in Glens Falls Messenger, Jan'y 17, 1868. 

Note No. 6. — S. R. Stoddard, artist, photographer, publisher guide books 
on Lake George Champlain and the Adirondacks, and cartographer, still 
at Glens Falls. N. Y. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 59 

I have read over your letter with care, and I have looked 
Lossing with reference to Arnold & Ti., but do not find that he 
gives any authorities. I have looked over the American Archives, 
and find that Arnold claims more for himself than Bancroft does 
for him. (See Arch. Vol. 2, p. 557) also (N. York Jour. June 1, 
1775 & Aug. 3, 1775) Beamans narrative is utterly at variance 
with Bancroft & Arnold, & I am now trying to get at the real 
worth of Bemans character. ( 7 ) The accounts of the time were 
exceedingly ex-parte. All I want is to get the facts for my brief 
narrative of Ti. I have as little respect for Allen as for Arnold. 
I find by the N. Y. Journal that an attempt was made to give all 
the glory to Col. Easton. I do not believe that the true history of 
the affair has ever been written & the farther I get into it the less 
hope I have of getting at the truth myself. 

About Ft. George you say that it is a "recorded fact that 
the artillery companies did proceed down the lake & entrench 
themselves at Diamond Island". Also that "the Records of the 
Provincial Congress show that at the time the British garrison 
at the head of the lake consisted of two companies of Artillery". 
I had previously made search on these points & have since looked 
about considerable, but find nothing of it. I should be glad to 
know where in the records the facts may be found. 

In 1773 Crown Point blew up and at that time Ti could 
accomodate only 50 men. Gen. Haldiman wanted 200 more, but 
there was no accomodation. The following year (1774) there 
were only a few soldiers at the head of L. George to forward sup- 
plies ( 8 ) & when Ti. surrendered there were only 40 men in the gar- 
rison. I have hunted up all the English & American papers relating 
to that year, also the English army registers, but find nothing of 
a uarrison at Lake George. Ti & Cr. Pt. are alone mentioned. 
Yet the father of Skene was appointed to the command of the 
three posts and was on his way to take possession when he fell into 

Note No. 7. — Dr. DeCosta goes back on Beaman in a severe attack on 
his veracity published in Dawson's Hist. Mag. for May, 1868, pp. 273-274. 

Note No. 8. — This local tradition when finally run to earth showed 
Diamond Island to have been fortified, not in 1775, but in 1777. Holden's 
Queensburv, pp. 456-457. Quotes Stone's Memoirs of General Reidesel, 
Vol. I, pp. 124-5. 



60 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

the hands of Colonial authorities. This is as near as I can get 
to the matter with present light. I should like to know where the 
subject is alluded to in Provincial Records. 

I remain, 

Very truly yours, 

B. F. DeCosta. 

III. FROM DR. E. B. O'CALLAGHAN. 

Albany, Dec. 19, 1867. 
Dear Sir:— 

You inquired of me some time ago whether I could point out 
any Books that refer to your Section, of which I am glad to learn 
you are endeavoring to illustrate the early History. 

I hope that you will continue your valuable labors and fur- 
nish the public eventually with a Volume on the subject. It is 
historic ground and will well repay research. * * * ■ 

I have carefully read your Papers in the Glens Falls Messen- 
ger and found them very interesting. On a subject with which you 
are most familiar, it would not become me to pretend too much 
knowledge. My remarks consequently cannot be of much value. In 
the Messenger No. 35, Aug. 30, ' 67, in the paragraph at the foot of 
the last column, the printer has made it is presumed a typographical 
error in printing Mr. William Gilliland " Sir William". Mr. 
Watson of Essex Co., has lately published some account of this 
Gilliland, who I think was originally a private soldier in one of the 
British regiments that served in the French War, and so became ac- 
quainted with the country about Lake Champlain. 

In the same par. I read : 

"About the same time (May or June 1765) the proprietors 
of Queensbury deeded to Mr. Abraham Wing a section of 10 acres 
of land immediately at the Falls, on condition that he should build 
there a saw mill and grist mill for the accommodation of the in- 
habitants. This condition was complied with." 

I have been fortunate enough to find among the papers here 
an "Account for Building a Sa.w mill at Queensbury for Moses 
Clement" copy whereof I transmit with this letter. It appears 
therefrom that a Sawmill had been built in the summer of 1764. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 61 

In the no. of Sept. 13, among the Grand Jurors at the First 
County Court at Port Edward, I find the name of Joseph Mc- 
Craekin. 

He was commissioned Captain in the 2nd N. Y. Continentals, 
commanded by Col. Vanschaack, 28 June 1775, and was stationed 
about Skeenesboro and Ticonderoga; was recommissioned in same 
regiment 21 Nov. 1776, lost an arm at the Battle of Monmouth 28 
June 1778 ; was appointed Major of the 4th N. Y. Continentals 
29 May 1779, and resigned his commission 11 April 1780. On 31 
March 1781 he was appointed Commissioner for detecting and de- 
feating conspiracies within this State, and on 24 July 1782, he was 
commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Charlotte County Regi- 
ment of Militia. 

Colonel McCracken died 5 May, 1825. ( 9 ). 

Should I find other matter to interest you, it will afford me 
much pleasure to communicate it. Meanwhile I remain, 

Respectfully yours, 

E. B. O'CALLAGHAN. 

A. \V. Holden, Esq. M. D. 

Glens Falls, 

N. Y. 

The Joseph McCracken mentioned by Dr. 'Callaghan was 
one of the signers of the petition despatched to the Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia, on June 10, 1775, from Crown Point. 
His name has heretofore been given by the writer as one of the ad- 
ditional men with Allen at Ticonderoga. 

Regarding Col. McCracken, Judge James Gibson, of Salem, 
says : The life of Col. Joseph McCracken was so intertwined with 
the rise and progress of Salem that it cannot be fairly written 
separately. He was an integral part of the town over fifty years. 
His only surviving grandchild that I know of is Mrs. Mathews, 
now living in Sandy Hill, aged 86 years, and highly intelligent, 
She is the mother of Mrs. Baker, the wife of Editor Baker, and 
keeps her own house. I would like you could see her. She has, as 

Note No. 9. — See additional list Allen's men by J. A. H. 



62 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

I judge, some of the noble characteristics of her Grandsire. (Let- 
ter to Hon. A. W. Holden, Oct. 2, 1874). 

William Gilliland, mentioned in the O'Callaghan letter, 
claimed in a petition to the Continental Congress in 1777, that he 
was "The first person who laid a plan for and determined upon 
seizing Ticonderoga, C. Point and the King's armed vessel, & 
therewith the entire command of Lakes George & Champlain. 
That by means of your memst. an unhappy dispute wh subsisted 
between Mr. Allen and Mr. Arnold (the then rival Heads of our 
handful of people on L. Champlain) was composed. In conse- 
quence of wch your memst (besides several other matters) took the 
Liberty of recommending to your honors, the embodying the Green 
Mountain boys. Col. Allen delivered the letter." (Watson's 
Pioneer History of the Champlain Valley, pp. 175-176). 

There was a well circulated tradition that William Gilliland, 
who was the pioneer of the Champlain Valley settlements, at this 
time living at Willsboro, in company with Colonel Allen and Col- 
onel Skene had planned to establish a royal colony, which was to 
contain the New Hampshire Grants, and Colonel Skene was absent 
in England on this errand at the time, returning just in time to be 
made a prisoner at Philadelphia. The matter is spoken of as an 
established fact in Ira Allen's History, heretofore referred to, 
pp. 360-361. (It is more than probable that John Brown stopped 
with Gilliland on his journey northward in the winter, and there 
heard from Gilliland, for the first time, of the advantages of seiz- 
ing Ticonderoga. Gilliland,might easily have arranged with Brown 
at this time, who says in his letter, ' ' I have established a channel of 
correspondence through the grants which may be depended upon," 
to get word to the Green Mountain Boys, the people whom Brown 
said were to undertake the affair. Gilliland could have managed 
this through the medium of Peleg Sunderland of the Grants a 
noted hunter and guide, and his companion Winthrop Hoyt, who 
were Brown's guides on this journey. (Hiland Hall's History of 
Vermont, pp. 467-71). (Brown's letter in Force, 4th Series, Vol. 
II, pp. 443-45. For Sunderland, see Chittenden's address, pp. 
94-99.) Gilliland was a remarkable character whose life story 
reads like a romance, but cannot be given in detail here. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 bd 

IV. FROM DR. E. B. O'CALLAGHAN. 

(The following letter refers mostly to the Town of Queens- 
bury, so those matters have been elided) : 

Albany 30, Dee., 1867. 
My dear sir, 

I received in course your letter of the 20th instant, and as an 
installment, sent you last week a sketch of the biographies of Col. 
Duer and Col. Romans. 

The latter, I now find, was at Hartford, Ct., 28th April 1775, 
wjhen the plan was formed there to sieze Ticonderoga and he & 
other gentlemen set out from there, and eventually one party 
marched against Ticonderoga ; another against Skeensborough 
(Whitehall) and subsequently, on the 12 May, he took possession 
of Fort George. You can compare these dates with that of the 
capture of the first mentioned fort. The date, 12 April '75, Col. 
Doc. VIII, 597 is wrong. It ought to be "May." I note the Vols, 
in your library, and know nothing to suggest as an addition, except 
Spark's edition of Writings or Letters of Gen. Washington 12 
vols., and Letters to Washington 4 Vols, all 8vo , published in Bos- 
ton. John Adam's Letters published by the Govt, at Washington, 
may have something. You will do well to consult Force's Ar- 
chives, 8 vols folio. They were printed at the expense o(! the Govt, 
and possibly some of the former Representatives in Congress from 
your district may possess a copy. 

I have rec'cl Glens Falls Messenger 20 Dec. 1867. The peti- 
tion of Nordbergh already sent you, solves the difficulty you may 
have experienced respecting him. I regret I cannot throw any 
further light at present on "Daniel Parks". I shall bear the name 
in mind, and if I discover anything respecting him will communi- 
cate it. 

I shall overhaul the Records of Indian Treaties in the Secre- 
tary's office again, though with little hope of finding any minute 
of that Indian Treaty at Fort George. Meanwhile, I find in 
Force's Archives, 4 Series, Vol. 5, p 981, the following extract of a 
letter from Fort George, dated 18 April 1776. 

"This day arrived with their interpreter (Mr. Deane) the In- 
dian delegates of the Seven Tribes in Canada, from the Congress 



04 



NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



of the Six Nations at Onondaga. I was introduced to, and had the 
honor to take them by the hand. Deane says, they have resolved 
to observe a strict neutrality and have appointed deputies to at- 
tend our Indian Commissioners at Albany, and may be daily ex- 
pected there". 

V-FROM DR. F. B. HOUGH. 

The particulars of the Capture of Ticonderoga by Ethan Al- 
len are in Force's Archives and are such substantially as narrated 
by Bancroft. Allen and Arnold entered the fort pari passu. Col. 
Eaton afterward claimed that honor, but Capt. Delaplace an- 
swered and denounced the pretensions. I'll copy Delaplace for 
you if you like. It is only a few lines. 

You have in this letter an answer as to the circumstances 
which led Romans to go to Fort George. I have already sent you 
his biography. Enclosed is the extract I copied in pencil from 
Force. * * * 

I believe I have disposed now of your queries and when I look 
over the Indian Treaties will again report. 

I have a remonstrance of Wm. Duer to the N. Y. Convention 
against the election of Delegates for Charlotte Co., 1776, but as 
this is not within your limit, I have not sent it, and shall not un- 
less you request it. 

Yours very truly, 

E. B. O'CALLIGAN. 
A. W. Holden, Esq., M. D, 
Glens Falls, N. Y. 

P. S.— I receive today a letter from the Rev. Mr. DeCosta of 
New York City. As a curious coincidence he makes the same en- 
quiries about Nordberg and Daniel Parks, which I have already 
answered in my letter to you. I suppose he is one of your cor- 
respondents. 

Glen of Glens Falls, settled at Chambly, in Canada, where 
and at Montreal I think there are some of his descendants. A 
Dr. Glen was a fellow student with me at the latter place. 

There was a local tradition to the effect that there was a con- 
vention of Indian Chiefs at the head of Lake George about this 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 65 

time to arrange for a Treaty of Peace. This is the matter referred 
to in the foregoing letter. The date of this convention however 
is definitely settled by the following communication : 

Lowville, April 23, 1869. 
Dr. A. W. Holden, 
Dear Sir: 

Your letter of the 16th of Feb. is found by me on my return 
from a long absence. I cannot here, speak certainly as to what 
papers there may be extant at Albany concerning the Treaty at 
Lake George with the Canada Indians about 1794. It was abor- 
tive and not consummated till 1796. 

See my Hist. St. Lawrence and Franklin, p. 128. Assembly 
Journal, 1794, p. 93, 129, 132, &c. 

Seek also in "Clinton Papers/' State Library, for data of this 
period. I have some papers among my Mss. but am absolutely 
unable to refer to them, having just been appointed "in charge of 
U. S. Census," and with a pressing amount of work before me. 

The ' ' Indian Treaties ' ' do not come down to this date, but the 
Mss. referred to above, embrace later materials than those printed. 
In haste, 

Yours, 
F. B. HOUGH. 

VI. EXTRACT FROM DR. O'CALLAGHAN'S LETTER, 
JANUARY 4th, 1868. 

"I do not think Capt. Mott, Art. IX, was on his way from 
Ticonderoga with his company. It is stated in Duer's letter that 
he was going to Ticonderoga. when stopped by Duer. The letter 
dated 5 June was laid before the Com. of Safety in New York the 
11 July. Duer had intelligence on the 21st May of the proposed 
attempt to close the Courts at Fort Edward, and prevailed on 
Capt. Mott, then on his way to Ticonderoga to halt his men. Mott 
had plenty of time to go afterward to Ticonderoga and then to 
reach New York. 

At p. 27, Journal of N. Y. Convention, Vol. 2, is an applica- 
tion from one Gershom Mott, dated New York, June 6, 1775, for 
a Captain's Commission. He was appointed Capt. of a company 



bb NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

in the 1st 114 Continentals 28 June, 1775, was appointed Capt. in 
Nicholson's regt. in Canada 15 April, '75, and served in the Cana- 
da Campaign. See Life of Lamb (Col John), in whose regiment 
of artillery this Gershom Mott was commissioned Captain Jan. 1, 
1777, and served to the end of the war, and had a grant of 1800 
acres in the Military Townships of Brutus, Cincinnatus & Ovid. 

I mention these particulars and dates in order to enable you 
to determine the point of identity between him and Edward." 

VII. FROM DR. B. O.CALLAGHAN. 

Albany, 6 Jan'y, 1868. 
Dear Sir: 

I sent you a package of Ms. Notes today, which I hope will at 
least show you how. much I am interested in your literary labor. 

You asked me if Captain Edward Mott, whose letter from 
Force's Archives dated Shoreham, Vt., 11 May, 1775, was the same 
Capt, Mott mentioned in your Art. IX as being at Fort Edward 
about the 5th of June and whether he was on his way to or from 
Ticonderoga. at that time. 

I gave it as my opinion that he was on his way to that Fort, 
and added some information respecting Capt. Gershom Mott. 

I find now these particulars respecting the latter, are irrele- 
vant to the subject you relate, and that the Capt. Motte of Duer's 
letter was Edward. 

Here are the proofs, Duer says : 

' ' As Capt. Motte is on his way to your congress, I esteem my- 
self bound in gratitude to mention his alacrity in supporting good 
order within your Province, not doubting that such a line of con- 
duct will recommend him to your attention, "Journal of N. Y. 
Prov. Convention 1, 72. 

On p. 71 and same Vol. is a letter from Col. Benj. Hinman to 
N. Y. Congress dated Ticonderoga, July 3, 1775, wherein, after re- 
lating the ruinous condition of the Fort, he goes on to say : 

"Captain Edward Motte, who. will wait on you with this, 
will give you further information." 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 07 

Now, both Duer's and Hinman's letters were read in the Com- 
mittee of Safety in New York on the same day, 11 July, showing' 
that Captain Edward Motte, was the bearer of both despatches. 

The letter of Col. Hinman also shows that Motte was at Ticon- 
deroga on the 3rd July, whence it is conclusive that when he met 
Duer he was on his way to that place. 

Hinman's letter also mentions the arrival on the 2nd July at 
the Fort of Lt. Col. Samuel Motte, "who is appointed engineer by 
the Colony of Connecticut," and has taken a survey of this place 
and of Port George. ( 10 .) 

Whether Samuel and Edward were relatives, I have no means 
at hand of ascertaining. 

Yours, 
E. B. O'CALLIGHAN. 
Dr. Holden, 

Glens Falls, N. Y. 

The manuscript referred to in the above communication con- 
sists chiefly of excerpts from Force's Archives and various authori- 
ties on the Expedition which have already been referred to. The 
majority of them not being within the scope of this article. The 
William Duer referred to was an exceedingly distinguished resi- 
dent of Washington County, although of English birth. He was 
a great friend of Philip Schuyler, and erected saw, grist, and snuff 
mills at Fort Miler, N. Y., and later on a powder mill. He had 
also a spacious mansion, his wife, "Lady Kitty" Duer, a daugh- 
ter of Lord Sterling, being one of the noted belles of the colony. 
He was appointed second judge of Charlotte County (Philip 
Schuyler being the first judge) and held the last royal court in 
that county before the Revolution, June 20, 1775. The inhabitants 
of the Hampshire Grants had made a mockery of Charlotte County 
justice, even to the extent of trying, without success, to mob the 
court and prevent trials at Fort Edward in March, and although 
Colonel Duer knew an attempt would be made by the mob to break 
up his courts in June, he notified them he intended to hold court 
even at the risk of his life. ( n .) 



Note No. 10. — Force's Archives Fourth Series, Vol. II, pp. 1538-39. 
Note 11. — Holden's Hist, of Queensbury, page 403; Bench and Bar 
Washington County, Hon. James Gibson, Salem Review Press, 1888; John- 
son's Hist. Washington County, page 40; Stone's Washington County, 
pp. 135-136. 



b8 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

In order to clear up this point the following from Force is 
inserted here : 

WILLIAM DUER TO NEW YORK CONGRESS 

Fort Miller, June 5, 1775. 
Sir:— I esteem it a duty which I owe to the Province to in- 
form you that my apprehensions with respect to the designs of the 
-people in this County to stop the courts of justice, were not ill 
founded. A party of the people on the NEW HAMPSHIRE 
GRANTS, strengthened by some persons of desperate fortunes and 
characters in the western districts, had formed a resolution of 
abolishing the law ; and to effect their purpose, had actually march- 
ed on their way to Fort Edward. Yesterday fortnight I had in- 
telligence of their design, and by a lucky incident put a stop to 
their proceedings, at least for the present. 

Captain MOTT, who is the bearer of this, was marching his 
company to join the forces at TICONDEROGA. I mentioned to 
him the intelligence I had received, and applied to him for his as- 
sistance. This gentleman coincided with myself in opinion of the 
absolute necessity there was of keeping up at least the shadow of 
order and justice, and detained his company at Fort Edward in 
order to protect the Bench. The riotous party getting information 
of this unlooked for relief, desisted from their attempt. 

As Captain MOTT is on his way to your Congress, etc. [S<-e 
Dr. O'Callaghan's letter Jan. 4, 1868]. * * 

Your interposition in this matter may save the spilling of 
blood the next Court, for so long as' I know it to be the sense of the 
Country that the courts of Justice should be supported, and that 
I have the honor of sitting as one of the Judges, I shall endeavor 
to keep them open even at the risk of my life. I am, Sir, with re- 
spect, your obedient humble servant, Wm. Duer. 

To Peter Van Burgh Livingston, Esq., President of the Pro- 
vincial Congress at New York. (American Archives, 4th Series, 
Vol. II, 1775, pp. 910-11.) 

Whether Lieut. Colonel Samuel Mott, engineer of the colony 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 by 

of Connecticut, and who served as an engineer at Ticonderoga un- 
der Colonel Hinmau and Gen. Schuyler, was a relative of Edward 
Mott, the writer, like Dr. O'Callaghan, has no means of determin- 
ing. 

In 1776 Colonel Mott was stationed in August, September, 
October and November at Skenesborough, Fort Ann, Ticonderoga 
and Mount Independence. He probably received his appointment 
on account of his familiarity with this section of the coun- 
try. ( 12 -) 

As Dr. 'Callaghan says, Captain Mott would have had plenty 
of time to have been at Fort Edward on June 20th, and in New 
York the 11th of July. In fact, John Brown riding express 
brought the news of the Capture of Ticonderoga to the Committee 
of Safety at Albany May 12th. He appeared before the Con- 
tinental Congress at Philadelphia May 17th. While Captain 
Phelps reported to the Connecticut Assembly May 27th, at which 
time the Assembly wrote to the Massachusetts Congress, "they 
were sending four companies at once to march to Ti." (Archives 
pp. 17-19.) Therefore there would have been no physical dif- 
ficulty to prevent Captain Mott from meeting this company any- 
where between Albany and Connecticut and marching to Ticonde- 
roga with them. 

Judge Duer must have accompanied Captain Mott to Ticonde- 
roga for we find Walter Spooner, one of the special envoys, from 
the colony of Massachusetts to Ticonderoga, commending Judge 
Duer— for helping to quell the mutiny among Arnold's men after 
the Massachusetts Committee had relieved Arnold of his com- 
mand. ( 13 -) 

VIII. FROM JUDGE WILLIAM HAY. 

Jan'y 22, '68. 
Dear Sir: 

I have asked old Mrs. McKean about demons or Clements' 
mill in Queensbury, but she never heard of any such. Mr. Beman 

Note No. 12. — Orderly Book of Capt. Ichabod Norton, by Robert O. Bas- 
com, Fort Edward, 1898. 

Note No. 13. — Spooner to Governor Trumbull, 4th Archives II, pp. 
1540-41, also to New York Congress, pp. 1539-40. 



70 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

was certainly mistaken as to Benedict Arnold not being at the Cap- 
ture of Ticonderoga. Beman was a mere boy and probably did 
not learn all the facts because not pushed forward on the entry 
which was effected by Allen jumping on the sentinel's back, seiz- 
ing his musket, threatening into silence and entering a wicket 
gate ; Arnold being at his side. Those facts I learned from Cap- 
tain Ashley (formerly of Poultney) who was, by marriage, a re- 
lative of Allen and acted as his aide at the capture. Ashley ap- 
peased the quarrel between Allen and Arnold at Castleton. That 
quarrel was undoubtedly renewed at Ti. Beman witnessed the out- 
break that he describd as having occurred on the temporary float- 
ing bridge between Ti and Mount Independence (afterwards so 
named). Arnold wished to remove the captured cannon to Cam- 
bridge, according to the purpose of his mission or expedition 
thwarted by Allen's previous march from Bennington. Allen 
wished to use those cannon for defense of Lake Champlain and 
attack on Montreal if not Quebec. The State of New York, how- 
ever, took charge of the cannon and so indiscreetly disposed of 
them that cannon to fortify Ti. were in 1776 and 1777 actually ob- 
tained in Albany. 

On Thursday evening I am to repeat at Ballston Spa., my 
statement concerning Lura Boies' life, poetry and genius. ( 14 ) 
Mrs. Boies writes to me that she has received money enough to 
pay off the purchase price mortgage, but we wish a little more to 
finish at least another room in her home, for now it may properly 
be so termed. The recent agitation has brought the book (Rural 
Rhymes) into demand, and I have therefore advised her to keep 
a supply at Glens Falls and other places accessible to purchasers, 
Fortsville being really a sequestered spot. Thus on that subject 
all is well that has ended well and Mrs. Boies feels very grateful 
to you, Mr. Coffin, and other friends who have rendered assis- 
tance. Res'y, 

Jan. 22, 1868. WM. HAY, Sar. Spr'gs, 

Doc. A. W. Holden, 

Glens Falls, Warren Co., N. Y. 

Note No. 14. — Lura Anna Boies, the young and gifted poet of Sara- 
toga County, who in the fruitage of her womanhood was taken away in 
her twenty-fourth year, was the author of a small book of poems entitled 
"Rural Rhymes," one of the best known of which is "Jane McCrea." The 
Rev. Dr. J. E. King, one of our valued members and Judge Hay did what 
they could to make the last days of the mother of Miss Boies comfortable, 
which explains the allusion in the letter. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 71 

IX. FROM JUDGE WILLIAM HAY. 

Feb'y 2, '68. 
Dear Sir : 

I am much obliged for the last Glens Falls newspaper con- 
taining your article promising an account of Capt. Norberg's cap- 
ture by Cap'n. Romans at Lake George. Your persistent investi- 
gation has been a great success, which I trust will be pursued 
until all the documents are discovered. May it not be that on his 
route Roman's may have stopped at South Glens Falls for sup- 
plies and been accompanied thence to Fort George by some of the 
Parks family. One of their number being left in charge of the 
Fort as he surely was when the murder was perpetrated at South 
Glens Falls. The Fort (George) was abandoned by retirement to 
Diamond Island of all the British troops (two companies) as soon 
as Burgoyne's communication with Lake George was interrupted 
by his advance toward Behmus Heights. It is therefore improba- 
ble that the Parks seized Fort George in 1777. I shall wait, with 
anxiety for your next publication. Do you locate the clearing 
which was four miles from Ft. Edward ? It may have been where 
old Abraham Wing settled (the present William Macdonald farm). 
( 15 .) And that where old Enos Curtiss resided (the present Par- 
sons farm), ( 16 .) AVas the last clearing (3 miles from Lake 
George) near Bloody Pond, or at Fort Williams, a half mile south 
east of George Brown's tavern. ( 17 .) 

Res 'y , 

WM. HAY, 

Feb. 22, 1868. 
Doe. Holden, 

Glens Falls, N. Y. 

What think you of my conjecture that the Clement mill may 
have been located a half mile below Glens Falls and on the site of 
the old Benjamin Wing and Enos Curtiss saw mill (which I well 
remember) to which a road conducted from the house of old Abra- 
ham Wing, Benjamin's father? Perhaps in 1764 there was no 

Note No. 15. — Where the Glens Falls Home now stands. 

Note No. 16. — Now the Keenan Farm near the Warren Street Railroad 
Crossing, Glens Falls. 

Note No. 17. — Now as then celebrated as the Halfway House between 
Glens Falls and Lake George. 



72 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

other road to the falls (Glens then, or soon after Wing's) on the 
north shore of the Hudson. 

W. H. 

It is not passing strange that Laplace at Ticonderoga should 
have been surprised after Roman's seizure of Fort George. W. 
H. (is.) 

X. FROM DR. E. B. O'CALLAGHAN. 

In a letter from Dr. O'Callaghan dated Jan. 4, 1868, we take 
the following referring to Fort George : " On 21 or 22 June, 1759, 
Gen. Amherst arived at Lake George. The rear of his camp was 
where the old Fort stood, and on the 22nd Lieut, Spencer, Engi- 
neer, was ordered to see what is to be done for immediate defense. 
Working hours were from 5 to 11 and from 3 to 7. 30 June 200 
masons and 300 workmen to parade tomorrow morning to work for 
the Engineer. The number of workmen was afterward advanced 
to 450 and were employed daily on the works until the 20 July, 
w T hen orders were issued to start on the following morning at 2 
o'clock for Ticonderoga. Col. Montressor was chief engineer of 
Amherst's Expedition and he superintended the erection of Fort 
George at the head of Lake George in July, 1759. Commissary 
Wilson's Orderly Book, Edited by E. B. O'Callaghan, pp. 40-86. 
It was called Fort George after the King of England then on the 
throne. It is called "Fort George in the entries of 28th July, 
1759. ( 19 .) 

XI. FROM JUDGE WILLIAM HAY. 

Dear Sir: 

I regret that I have not yet found time for our rambles about 
Queensbury. I accidentally saw the last Feb. number of the (New 
York) Historical Magazine. It contains Revd. B. F. DeCosta's 
article relative to "Daniel Parks and the Capture of Fort George." 
I have sent to that Magazine's editor and proprietor, Mr. Dawson 

Note No. 18. — The Parks matter to which Judge Hay alludes will be 
discussed at a little more length in the chapter which is to close this ar- 
ticle under the head of "The Capture of Fort George in 1775." 

Note No. 19. — The Montressor Journals, Coll. N. Y. Hist. Socy. for 1881, 
pp. 11-12, etc. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 t6 

of Morrisiana, a correction of Mr. DeCosta's errors. The same 
number contains Hiland Hall's communication concerning "the 
New York Dellius' Patent." I have also answered Mr. Hall's 
misstatements. Whether Dawson will publish my communications 
I know not. ( 20 .) Wm, L. Stone informs me that his edition of 
Gen'] Reidsel wjill be issued in a few days. Last night I had a 
call from B. C. Butler. ( 21 .) He told me that his book is being 
printed in Albany where last winter he conversed much with Doc. 
O'Callaghan, who referred him to many manuscript authorities 
and two books in the state library. Butler's compilation may 
therefore be useful to you, as it refers to the Town of Queensbury. 
Butler informs me that (on Hiram Rockwell's ( 22 ) request which 
originated Butler's Book, he has added a map (copied from that 
in the Colonial Documents) and from which he made as to Fort 
William Henry an actual survey, which I find corresponds sub- 
stantially with the old Continental map the lines of which -\v ire 
traced by General Hoyt. I pointing out to him the various lines 
and batteries. Since I began this letter I have received Wm. L. 
Stone's translation of Reidsel in 2 thin volumes. After reading 
them I will send them to you. I am pleased that Warren County 
and its vicinity are receiving so much investigation, which must 
furnish considerable material for your proposed work. It will, of 
course, be more complete from the necessary delay in preparation 
and publication. You fortunately are possessed of the required 
patience and diligence for thorough scrutiny. I have made an 
arrangement for publishing my Burgoyne's Campaign next year. 
And shall not regret even another year's delay. Frequent cor- 
rection of error satisfies me that no historical work should be print- 
ed until after considerable postponement and frequent review. 



Note No. 20. — Judge Hay's articles were published in full in Historical 
Magazine for April, 1868, pp. 251-252, Dellius Patent, and May, 1868, 
pp. 310-311, Fort George and Daniel Parks. 

Note 21. — B. C. Butler was a prominent resident of Warren County at 
this time, living at Luzerne, N. Y. He was a man of ability, a trifle eccen- 
tric, but an enjoyable person to foregather with. He published his work 
on Lake George and Lake Champlain in 1868, it having several editions. 
He represented Warren county in the Assembly in 1860. 

Note 22. — Hiram J. Rockwell then of Luzerne, later of the Rockwell 
House, Glens Falls, afterwards of Troy, and for many years at the Ken- 
more and Ten Evck, Albany, came of a famous hotel-keeping family, and 
as a boniface had a reputation that was nation wide. The family name is 
ably sustained by his son, F. W. Rockwell, of Albany, &c. 



74 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

"Bide your time" is an inclispensible rule of authorship. My lack 
of means luckily, although unpleasantly inculcate that duty of de- 
lay. 

Res'y, 

" WM. HAY, 

Sara, Springs, 

June 10, 1868. 
Doc. A. W. Holden, 
Warren County, 

Glens Falls, N. Y. 
It is to be regretted that Judge Hay's "Historical Novel con- 
cerning Burgoyne's Campaign," was never published except in 
the Glens Falls Republican for 1869. While partly fiction the 
historical foot notes are invaluable to the local historians of War- 
ren, Washington and Saratoga Counties. 

XII. FROM JUDGE WILLIAM HAY. 

June 13, '68. 
Dear Sir: 

Dominie DeCosta sent to me his prospectus, but I did not 
know till now that he had published. He is all over priest and 
has in a lecture at the east attempted to prove that Ethan Allen 
had little to do with the Capture of Ticonderoga, DeCosta seems 
just now to have discovered, what we all knew long ago, that others 
aided and that the Allen's (especially Ira), was in sham negotia- 
tions with the British relative to the controversy between this state 
and the Hampshire Grants. I will send to you the Feb'y num- 
ber of the Historical Magazine, the Editor of which I fear may 
not publish my answer to DeCosta, who seems to be a regular con- 
tributor. Those magazines are too much controlled by cliques. 
* * * j j ia( j not un til receipt of your letter heard of Doc. 
Fitch's Church History ( 23 ) ; but presume that he will publish in 
Albany, because Salem has no book-printing establishment, only 
a newspaper. "Burgoyne's Campaign" is the title of Charles 
Neilson's history, which is a very creditable book; except that he 

Note No. 23. — Dr. Asa Fitch, Scientist, Historian and Scholar. His 
history of Washington Co. appears in the transactions of the New York 
Agricultural Society for 1848-49. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 75 

is too anxious to locate on his father's farm all important occur- 
rences and more too. I will not forget the Plattsburg Campaign 
of 1814. I believe old Capn. Ashley was called "Uncle Tom" but 
I am not positive because I have got him confounded with Stephen 
Ashley, who removed from Troy to Sandy Hill. I intend to visit 
Poultney and will then be able to tell you all about him. I recol- 
lect however that he acted as ensign in the Ticonderoga expedition. 
The first postmaster I recollect at Glens Falls was John A. Ferriss, 
subsequently reappointed. At the time of Emmon's appointment 
who (if I recollect right), was succeeded by Adonijah Emmons, and 
James Henderson became postmaster at the Oneida, but whether 
he was the first postmaster there I know not. Orange Ferriss ( 24 ) 
can obtain from the P. 0. Department a complete list. I have no 
documentary testimony as to Fort Gage ; but believe he was at Lake 
George with Amherst and perhaps with Abercrombie. I will look 
at Gage's biography. I remember that he mismanaged in John- 
son's western expedition of 1756. * * * [Matter relating 
to Glenn family and Queensbury omitted]. I never heard that 
Carleton's raid caused the destruction of any other building except 
the old Jones house and a few more in that vicinity. Of course I 
do not include many in Ballston burned by Col. Munroe, who had 
been by Carleton detached from Bulwagga Bay. 

Resp 'y, 

WI. HAY, 

Sar. Sp'gs, 

June 13, 1868. 
Doc. A. W. Holden, 

Glens Falls, 

Warren Co., N. Y. 

Captain Ashley, to whom Judge Hay has referred, is men- 
tioned in Bascom's list of Ethan Allen's men. His correct chris- 
tian name was Thomas, and a silhouette of this old warrior, with 
a sketch appears in the Journal of American History of 1909, Vol. 
Ill, No. 4, pp. 602-603. 

Judge Hay mentions the name of the first postmaster at Glens 

Note No. 24. — Hon. Orange Ferriss, of Glens Falls, son of J. A. Ferriss, 
was a student of Wm. Hav. He was County Judge from 1851 to 1863. 
Representative in Congress 1866-70. Commissioner Southern Claims Divis- 
ion for years. 2nd Auditor of the Treasury under President Harrison. 



76 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

Falls. Mr. Ferriss' bond, with others, has been presented to this 
Association by Postmaster Edward Keecl, by permission of the 
Post Office Department at Washington. 

The writer hopes the publication of these letters may invest 
the capture of Ticonderoga with a little human interest throwing 
as they do, entertaining little side lights on the men and events of 
that time. 

THE CAPTURE OF FORT GEORGE IN 1775. 

In the Iioklen correspondence will be found a number of ref- 
erences to Bernard Romans and to Daniel Parks, the alleged cap- 
tor of Fort George at the head of Lake George, N. Y., in connec- 
tion with the Ticonderoga Expedition. Judge Hay and Dr. De- 
Costa excoriated each other with caustic pens because Charlotte 
County, through its pioneer, Daniel Parks, sought to reap. a little 
glory out of this exploit ( x ). It has remained for the writer to 
find from an unexpected source, confirmation of an old fire-side 
tradition, and to deduce probable proof to clear away the incon- 
sistencies which bothered my father and the local historians of his 
day. 

Just below the dam at Hudson Falls, N. Y. (until the spring 
of 1910 known as Sandy Hill), is the sightly cement bridge of the 
Union Bag and Paper Company stretching from its mill in Hud- 
son Falls across the Hudson to its big plant at Fenimore in Sara- 
toga County. Until the installation of the mills and up to within 
a very few years the spot was known as "Parks Ferry," from its 
original settlers, and an old ferry was operated here for a great 
many years. 

Let us turn from this spot a moment to connect Col. Romans 
with our story. 

Col. Bernard Romans was a Hollander by birth, removing to 
England when he became a competent engineer, then emigrating to 
the Southern Colonies before the Revolution. He served as offi- 
cial botanist in Florida, where he lived from 1763 to '73, publishing 

Note No. 1. — See Dawson's Historical Magazine, N. S., Vol. Ill, for 
Feb'y, 1868. DeCosta on Parks matter, p. 95; id. May 1868, Wm Hay, 
reply to DeCosta, pp. 310-311; Vol. V, Jan'y, 1869, DeCosta in rebuttal 
pp. 51-52. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 77 

a book on that province in 1775. He was employed that same year 
by the province of New York, under direction of the Committee of 
Safety, to construct defences in the Highlands. He also served 
his adopted country in various capacities, meantime publishing 
several learned treatises up to 1780, when he was captured by 
the British while on ship-board and held a prisoner at Jamaica till 
1783. He either died or was killed on his return passage to this 
country. "He left behind him a high character as a professional 
man and as an author." ( 2 ) 

How he became connected with this "Expedition to Ti." is 
not known. He however must have been in Connecticut at the 
time. The original idea of the promoters of the scheme in that 
colony seemed to contemplate Col. Romans taking charge of the 
whole matter. He had already started when Capt. Mott, who ap- 
pears to have been a rather aggressive and bumptious individual, 
and anxious to show his authority on all occasions, set out under 
authority of the Connecticut Committee to overtake Col. Romans. 
The latter, judging from his later record, appears to have been a 
very competent officer, but with a too "highly strung" and highly 
organized nervous temperament. Possibly Mott got on his nerves, 
as he did on those of Arnold later. At any rate Romans left the 
Connecticut party at Pittsfield, much to Mott's pleasure, who says, 
they were glad to see the last of him. (Conn. Hist. Col., Vol. I, 
p. 109, also compare Mott's Journal), and proceeded to perform 
a separate exploit, by capturing Fort George. 

We will now try to link together the conflict of testimony be- 
tween the Parks legend of Judge Hay and Dr. DeCosta's claim that 
Romans alone took Fort George, and that Parks had nothing to do 
with it. 

In order to do this the writer will use, without apology or 
quotation marks, a published account of the Parks affair from the 
pen of his father, Dr. A. W. Holclen: ( 3 ) 

Note No. 2. — Holden's Queensbury, p. 397. 

Note No. 3. — Another account of the Parks family is given by N. B. 
Sylvester as follows: 

To secure the names of the few families said to have been in the town 
of Moreau before the Revolution, with dates of settlement, has been a 
work of considerable difficulty. The following- account is pretty well au- 
thenticated. There may be names not secured, but those who are men- 
tioned in the following pages are believed to be correctly given. 

Elijah Parks came from Salisbury, Conn., in 1776, and in connection 
with his sons — a part of them already married — purchased eight hundred 



78 



NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



At the time of the capture of the fortress at Ticonderoga, by 
Ethan Allen, May 10, 1775, or rather a few days later, a party of 
the sons of liberty, assembled at Kingsbury Street, and made some 
preparations to celebrate the event, by building a bonfire and other 
hilarious demonstrations. A party of Tories hearing of the in- 
tended event, rushed in, scattered and extinguished the bonfire, and 
with angry threats and some violence dispersed the assemblage, and 
so intimidated the friends of the colonial cause, that but little at- 
tempt was made by the Whigs of Kingsbury to exhibit their predi- 
lections until after Burgoyne's surrender, when most of the Tories 
escaped to Canada. 

CAPTURE OF FORT GEORGE. 

After the close of the French war, and at some period prior to 
the settlement at Bakers Falls, the fort at the head of Lake George 
and the intermediate posts and blockhouses were abandoned. The 
forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point being of more substantial 
construction, were considered an adequate protection on a frontier 
no longer threatened by the annual incursions of the Indians, and 
the no less savage half-breed settlers of the Canadian border. At 
the time of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Allen and Arnold, 
and of the expedition of Capt, Herrick, Fort George, which had 
been partially dismantled, was inhabited by an invalid British 

acres of land at South Glens Falls. Elijah built the dwelling-house, after- 
wards known as the "old castle", and a saw-mill about on the site of the 
present lower mill of the Morgan Lumber Company. His son Daniel 
settled on the flat down the river, the present Bentley place. Lewis 
Brown, a son-in-law, and Ephraim Parks had another house near that of 
Elijah, above the old castle, a double log house. These were the first 
houses at South Glens Falls, and perhaps the first in town. It is said 
there were families between Fort Miller and Fort Edward on the west 
side of the river when the Revolutionary war broke out, but the dates 
and names are very difficult to obtain; and as the date of the Parks emi- 
gration is well settled by records in the hands of Merwin Parks, Esq., 
1766, as given above, this very likely constituted the first opening in the 
forest of Moreau. In 1775, when the news of Lexington was stirring the 
blood of Americans all over the land, about the same time that Colonel 
Ethan Allen was thundering at the gates of Ticonderoga in the name of 
the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, Daniel Parks, a man of 
gigantic stature, "born to command", gathered a few neighbors from Fort 
Edward and, without any pretense of orders from Congress or anybody 
else, not claiming even the authority given by Colonel Allen, pushed 
through the woods nine miles, and demanded and received the keys of 
Fort George. This is the tradition in the Parks family, and it is well sus- 
tained by the fact that upon Daniel Parks' tombstone, who died in 1818, 
there is the following inscription: "One of the veterans of the Revolu- 
tionary war. He was the man that took the keys from the British officer 
at Lake George in 1775". (Extract from History of Saratoga County, by 
Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, 1S7S — Moreau — page 422. 

The kev business is what stirred the gorge of Dr. DeCosta, and what 
the writer believes capable of a rational explanation. 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1T75 <tf 

officer— a captain by the name of John Nordberg, and two others 
named John McComb and Hugh McAuley, who are supposed to 
have been formerly soldiers, and remained possibly as pensioners 
and adherents of the British government. Their duties seem to 
have been the care and supervision of the fortifications and struc- 
tures hereabout, and to lend such aid and assistance as might be 
needed in forwarding messages, expediting expresses and the trans- 
mission of orders between the military headquarters at Albany and 
Montreal. A tradition in the Parks family, resident at the bend 
of the river, in the town of Moreau, opposite from Sandy Hill, as- 
sociates the name of their ancestors with this capture. Across the 
river, nearly opposite to but above the dam where the mills are now 
erected, and quite a distance from the banks of the stream, in a 
sheltered, sequestered nook, is located 

THE PARKS FAMILY BURIAL GROUNDS. 

Here, on one of the few modest marble slabs marking the rest- 
ing place of the dead, is one containing the following inscription: 

In memory of 

DANIEL PARKS, 

Who departed this life March the 3d, 

1818, aged 78, 

One of the Veterans of the Revolutionary 

War. He was the man who took the 

key from the British officer at 

Lake George in 1775. 

Whether Parks on bis own motion and with the aid of a few 
volunteer patriots, accomplished this act ,or whether it was done 
by the command of some superior authority, there is now no docu- 
mentary or historical evidence to prove. At all events, by the 
showing herein given, sustained by family tradition, the name of 
Daniel Parks remains enrolled among the minor heroes of the Revo- 
lution, as a friend of the colonies and liberty. 

THE PARKS MASSACRE. 

Whether it was a sequel to this enterprise and a retaliation 
therefor, since as family tradition has it, the officer at Fort George 



80 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

told Parks "he would be sorry for making this capture," or insti- 
gated by a private or personal feud ; or, what is more probable, one 
of those frequent marauding incursions which, from time to time, 
at irregular intervals, occurred along the Northern frontier, insti- 
gated by Tory malevolence and partisan hatred, there happened at 
some time between this event and the close of the Revolutionary 
War the following massacre, of which a brief detail is handed 
down to us in 

THE FAMILY TRADITION 

There was in the British army a captain by the name of Daniel 
Parks, who took an active part in quelling and reducing to sub- 
jection the aboriginal and savage inhabitants of the American con- 
tinent prior to the Revolutionary War, whose residence was in one 
of the Southern States, probably Virginia. This theory is war- 
ranted by the fact that the Parks family were prominent in the 
early Virginia annals, associated with the Washington and Custis 
families. A son of this original ancestor, also named Daniel Park, 
removed and settled in Salisbury, Connecticut, where he resided 
until a few years prior to the Revolution, when he removed to 
Wing's Falls (now Glens Falls), Charlotte County, N. 
Y., where he purchased a tract of eight hundred acres 
of land, situated along the south bank of the Hudson 
river, and settled there, erecting the first mills and dwell- 
ings at that locality. About the year 1777, while the Revolu- 
tionary War was in progress, and the country was swarming with 
predatory and marauding bands of savages and Tories, his house, 
which stood on the brow of the hill above the paper mill, was as- 
saulted at night by a band of these miscreants. They demanded 
the keys to his desk and secretary, where he kept his papers and 
valuables. The old man refused to deliver them. Thereupon one 
of the band clinched him, upon which a scuffle ensued, which re- 
sulted in getting the old man down, when one of the party drew 
up and shot him. He was supposed by the family to have been at 
that time about seventy-five years of age, and he thus died in de- 
fending himself against British aggression. 

Among this band was a Tory of the name of Richardson, who 
lived in that vicinity, and who had purchased of the old man Parks 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 SI 

a piece of land containing about one hundred acres, for which Parks 
held his obligations, and it is confidently believed that the murder- 
ous wretches were incited to the commission of this diabolical act 
of cruelty by a desire to get possession of Richardson's obligation, 
and thus have his land free from the incumbrance. 

ELISHA AND ISAAC PARKS. 

sons of the old man above mentioned, resided with their father, 
but the attack of the Tories was so sudden that they, not being at 
hand, were unable to render the old man any assistance, and when 
they arrived on the scene of action, and entered the house, they 
found their father dead, and his assassins apparently gone. They 
struck a light, and hearing a noise, Elisha, a young married man, 
went to the door, holding a candle or lantern in his hand, to make 
a reconnaisance. The door was one of the kind which opened half 
way down, and as he bent over the lower half he made a conspicu- 
ous target for the rifles of the Tories, still lurking in ambush among 
the bushes at the end of the house. He was shot while his wife stood 
by his side, across the abdomen, and his bowels gushed out. Hold- 
ing them up as he could, he with his wife and brother, escaped 
from the house, and fled down the river to the home of his brother 
Daniel, who lived about a mile down the river on the clearing now 
knoAvn as the Bentley Place. Not knowing the further purpose of 
the assassins Daniel, with his family and wounded brother, made 
their wlay to the river, which they hastened to cross in a canoe, 
taking refuge for the night in the Baker mill, at the head of the 
falls. During the night Elisha died, and his remains and those of 
his father were buried on the site of the Presbyterian church. It 
being the beginning of the first burial ground on Sandy Hill, it 
is stated traditionally that the stones which marked their place of 

Note No. 4. — Dr. Holden's authority was Daniel E. Parks, attorney and 
counselor at law, at that time, 1874, but lately removed from Sandy Hill. 
He had it from his father Barzella, who had it from his father Solomon, 
son of Daniel. Dr. H. is inclined to the belief however, that the massacre 
occurred in 1776, in which he is supported by two other family statements. 
Dr H believes it associated with the escape of Sir. John Johnson and his 
tory gang to Canada in that year. (Holden Mss. Notes in C. P. Book.) 

Note No. 4. — Shortly after the Revolution the Parks family returned 
and the head of it built a house known locally for many years as "The 
Castle" This old house has only this present year been demolished, by its 
now owner, George H. Childs, who started to tear it down In March, 1910, 
to sive place to a modern structure. A number of relics of Revolutionary 
days were said to have been found in the process of demolition. 



82 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

sepulcher forms a part of the foundations of the church above their 
graves. 

Some of the neighbors at the Baker place (Narrative of the 
Baker Family), tried to institute a pursuit, but before the militia 
could be rallied the marauders were so far away on their retreat 
that pursuit was useless. The effect of this raid was to break up 
for some years the settlement on the south side of the river, then 
known as the Parks Mills. On the following morning Daniel pro- 
cured a team, and removed his family with such household furni- 
ture as could be readily pushed and transported within the pro- 
tection of the military force then stationed at Fort Edward. When 
that post was abandoned by the American army, he retreated with 
it to Bemis Heights, where he participated as a volunteer in that 
memorable and eventful engagement, 

CAPTURE OF FORT GEORGE BY COL. ROMANS. 

Col. Romans, as has been said, leaving the Ticonderoga expedi- 
tion to go its way, followed the well defined trail either to Al- 
bany and then back to Fort Edward, or crossed over from the 
Hampshire Grants. At Fort Edward he picked up some men for 
wle find in his bill to the Colony of Connecticut (published in full 
in DeCosta's Lake George, its Scenes and Characteristics, appen- 
dix I), this charge: "To expen s on road at Mead w Runbridge and 
Fort George: 16 men £ 1. 10." ( 6 .) Undoubtedly the trained 
engineer, having in mind the transit and conveyance of heavy ar- 
tillery over the old military road, that being the prime object of 
the expedition, would seek to get road makers at the nearest point 
to fix up the bridges over the various brooks and make the rough 
road easier for the work at hand. 

This brings "the conclusion of the whole matter" in sight. 
In 1879 under the auspices of the New York Historical Society, a 
Mr. DeLancey, annotated and published "Thomas Jones' History 

Note No. 6. — The Meadow run brook, called on military maps Four 
Mile Creek, or Five Mile Run, because about that distance from the Lake 
George military posts, was named Meadow run because here was a large 
beaver meadow, where the first settlers got their hay. (Holden's Queens- 
bury, p. 180.) 

Note No. 7. — See Arnold's letter to Massachusetts Committe of Safety 
advising them of Roman's efforts in this direction, and commending him 
for his services. (Force's Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. II, p. 585.) 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 83 

of New York During the Revolutionary War." Jones being a 
Tory, and the history giving the Tory side of the controversy. The 
story of the taking of Fort George is found in the Appendix of 
Vol. I, among the editor's notes (pp. 549-551), and is herewith 
given in full : 

In a letter from Adiel Sherwood ( 8 ) to Gov. Tilden of New 
York, dated "Kirkwood, Missouri, near St. Louis, July, 1875, and 
endorsed as received at the Executive Department July 17th, 1875, 
and now filed in Vol. IV, Miscellaneous Mss., in the State Library, 
giving accounts of Revolutionary incidents he had collected in 
Northern New York and elsewhere, is the following account of the 
surprise and capture of Fort William Henry at the head of Lake 
George by a party of New Yorkers. It is not mentioned in any 
history, and may explain the reason why Congress ordered there 
the captured cannon of Fort Ticonderoga. 

' ' About the time Ethan Allen took Ticonderoga,a company of 
some ten men in the garb of hunters, commanded by Captain Pit- 
cher, the father of Gov. Nathaniel Pitcher, and Samuel Parks as 
Lieutenant, captured Fort Wm. Henry at the head of Lake George, 
Only 4 or 5 men were in the Fort, and the object of the Americans 
was not suspected. These facts I had from Gov. Pitcher in 1835, 
also from Mr. Parks, who resided in Saratoga Co. just opposite 
Sandy Hill." 

The original Fort William Henry was demolished by Mont- 
calm after he captured it in 1757, and never rebuilt. Fort George, 
built in its stead afterwards by the English on the rising ground a 
little to the east of the old site, was, and is, often called William 
Henry by mistake, and is doubtless the fort so called in the above 
account. 

Governor Nathaniel Pitcher,of New York, the authority for 
the above account, was in the New York Assembly, 1806, 1815, and 
1817; in the Constitutional Convention of 1821. He was elected 
Lieut.-Governor in 1826, and succeeded to the Governorship on the 
death of DeWitt Clinton, February 11, 1828, and held the office of 



Note No. 8. — See also Holden's Queensbury, biographies of Seth and 
Adiel Sherwood, pp. 119-123. 



84 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

the unexpired term. He was in the United States Congress from 
1814 to 1823, and from 1831 to 1833, and died at Sandy Hill, Wash- 
ington Co., N. Y., 25th May, 1836, aged 59.— Hough's Am. Biog. 
Notes p. 326. ( 9 ) 

The following relating to Sherwood and incidentally to Ethan 
Allen and his famous catch phrase is found in a letter (part of 
which was used in relation to Col. Joseph McCracken) written by 
the late Judge James Gibson of Salem to Dr. A. W. Holden, Oct. 
2, 1874. He says : 

Salem, Oct. 2, 1874. 
HON. A. W. HOLDEN. 
Dear Doctor: 

I enclose herewith- some notes of the Bradshaw family— 
whether of importance you can judge, and use accordingly. * * * 

In regard to Col. Adiel Sherwiood I have been trying to get 
the perusal of an apology for his surrender of Fort Ann, written 
by Winfield Scott Sherwood, and published if I recollect right in 
a newspaper then printed at Glens Falls sometime about 1840. 

You know that the belief of the people at the time of that sur- 
render was uniform, that it was a treacherous or cowardly act. 
The former I have never believed — but this latter is more difficult 
to disbelieve. There were members of his company from this town, 
who were surrendered as prisoners, and who died in the belief of 
his misconduct. But you are aware how mistaken oftimes the con- 
temporary popular cry is & therefore will hesitate — examine — be- 
fore final determination. 

I allude to him in his civil capacity in my court house address 
a copy of which I sent you. 

I freely acknowledge that there have been times w r hen I have 
been examining facts of his own stating, in connection with what 
I had ascertained from himself and from other sources, that have 
disgusted me, as much as did the perusal of Ethan Allen's four 



Note No. 9. — Adiel Sherwood was undoubtedly a lineal descendant of 
Col. Adiel Sherwood of Port Edward, who commanded at Fort Ann in 
1780 and was forced to surrender to Major Christopher Carleton in the 
October Invasion of that year. He was severely criticised then for 
alleged cowardice in surrendering, as Col. John Chipman of "Ti Expedi- 
tion" fame only gave in at Fort George after a stiff fight. As he was not 
courtmartialed, however, and later held both military and civil offices of 
honor and trust, the accusation has long since fallen to the ground a3 
untrue. (Holden's Queensbury, p. 49.) 



THE TICONDEROGA EXPEDITION OF 1775 85 

divers' accounts of how "I took Ticonderoga ? & in one of which 
he gets off the myth of the "Great J. & the Continental Congress" 
for neither of which he ever had any respect, except when he had 
a purpose to serve. And I cite his case, as I fear in his diversity 
of statement, he & Col. Sherwood were alike. 

But enough for the present while I remain, yours ever, 

JAMES GIBSON. 
P. S.— I am trying to locate Chesire's Mills for you, and hope 
I may succeed. 

(Over for Col Sherwood). 

Col. Sherwood is buried in the old graveyard in rear of the 
Baker house at Sandy Hill & his gravestone says : 

In memory of Col. Adiel and Sarah 
Sherwood. He was born Dec, 1749 in 
Washington, Conn. A Captain in the 
Revolutionary War; taken prisoner at 
Fort Ann Oct. 10, 1780; died Dec, 
1825. She was born June, 1775. Died 
March, 1827. 
Turning now to Fort George, at this time like Crown Point and 
Ticonderoga, probably in a tumble down condition, we find it oc- 
cupied by Capt. John Nordberg, who writes as follows to the New 
York Provincial Congress: ( 10> ) 
"The most respectable Gentlemen, 

"Provincial Congress in New York. 
"I beg leave to represent to the most respectable Congress 
this circumstance. 

' ' I am a native of Sweden, and have been persecuted for that, 
I have been against the French faction there. 

"I have been in His Britanick Magesty's Service sinse Jan- 
uary 1758. 

"I have been twice shot through my body here last war in 
America, & I am now 65 years old— reduced of age, wounds & and 
gravels, which may be seen by Doctor Jones's certificate. 

"1773. I got permission in Jamaica to go to London where I 

Note No. 10. — N. Y. Misc. Papers, Vol. XXXI, p. 15. See DeCosta's 
"Narrative of Events at Lake George," pp. 47-4S id. "Lake George," pp. 
120-125; "Holden's History of Queensbury," pp. 400-01. 



ob NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

petition to be an Invalid officer, but as a foreigner I could not en- 
joy a commission in England, or Ereland His Magisty was graci- 
ously pleased to give me the allowance for Fort George 7 shilling 
sterling per day, with liberty to live where I please in America, 
because the fort has been abandoned this 8 year and only 2 men re- 
main there for to assist any express going between New York and 
Canada. I arrived here in New York last year in September with 
intention to live in New York: as I heard nothing els than dishar- 
mony amongst Gentlemen which was not agreeable to my age. I 
resolved to go to Fort George and live there in a little Cottage as a 
Hermit, where I was very happy for 6 months. 

"The 12 of May last Mr. Romans came & took possession of 
Fort George, Mr. Romans behaved very genteel and civil to me. I 
told that I did not belong to the army and may be considered as a 
half pay officer invalid, and convinced him that I was pleagd with 
Gravell, Mr. Romans give me his passport to go to New Lebanon 
for to recover my health, & he told me that in regard to my age, I 
may go where I please. 

"As I can't sell any bill for my substance, & I can't live upon 
wind and weather, I therefore beg and implore the most respecta- 
ble Congress permission to go to England, and I intend to go to my 
native country, I could have gone away secret so well as some 
others have done, but I will not upon any account do such a thing 
— I hope the most respectable will not do partially to refuse me, be- 
cause major Etherington, Captain Brown, Captain Kelly which is 
in the army have been permitted to go to England, and it may hap- 
pen they return here again on actual Service, which old age & in- 
firmities render me incapable of. 

"As it is the custom among the Christian nations and the 
Turks, that they give substance to every Prisoner according to 
their Rank should the most respectable Congress, have any claim 
upon me to be a prisoner here, I hope they will give me my sub- 
sistence from th 12 of May last, according to My Rank as Captain 
I implore the favor of the most respectable Congress answer. I 
have the honour to remain with great respect, 
' ' Gentlemen, 

"Your most obedt humble Servant 

"John Nordberg. 

"New York, decemb r 1775." 



THE TIC0NDER0GA EXPEDITION OF 1775 87 

Gathering up now the scattering historical threads, we find that 
Col. Romans secured the assistance of some sixteen men to go with 
him to Fort George. We find from the Pitcher account, as written 
to Gov. Tilden, that a body of men commanded by Captain Pitcher 
and Lieut. Samuel Parks ( n ) were employed in the capture of 
that station. We find that Capt. Nordberg gives the credit to Col. 
Romans, to whom he surrendered. We find that Nordberg was 
living "as a hermit" in a little cottage at the fort. There must 
have been other buildings there for the care-takers also. Also 
some stores and materials of war. Under direction from Col. 
Romans these were doubtless locked up. This would be done by a 
responsible military subordinate. Therefore Lieut. Parks was un- 
doubtedly detailed and ordered to make things secure ; he may have 
even kept the keys, as Col. Romans immediately set off for Ticon- 
deroga, where he was associated with Arnold a few days later. And 
so the pieces of the puzzle fit together, and the problem which 
racked the brains of Dr. DeCosta of who took "Fort George" is 
solved. 

Starting with the intention of adding a few names to Secre- 
tary Bascom's article, this Ticonderoga matter has grown to a for- 
midable size. If, however, the writer has been able to throw even 
an atom of new light on one of the most written about, possibly 
best known, and yet most wonderfully exaggerated incidents of 
the Revolution, he will feel he has not spent his strength in vain, 
nor wasted his time on details of little interest to the average 
reader of history. 

Note No. 11. — Either a misprint, or misrecollection, there having been 
no "Samuel" then, so far as any authorities show. 



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